Conficker Worm Won't Die
In high school, every hipster doofus had to read "Dune." Slogged my way through 504 pages. Threw it down with 40 pages to go out of pure disgust. I wouldn't give Frank Herbert the satisfaction of finishing this waste of good pine.
The thing I remember from 30-plus years ago is these "Dune" worms were seemingly unstoppable. Just like Conficker. This Windows worm, now nearing its fifth birthday, isn't just old. It also hasn't been seriously updated for two years. Despite the neglect, Conficker remains a major threat, Redmond warns. In the last three years infections have increased 225 percent, and it's on pace to infect 2 million systems in the coming months.
The biggest hole Conficker strolls through is weak passwords. Strengthen these and you're halfway there. Want to be almost all the way home? Keep your systems patched. It's almost that easy and that fundamental.
In general, Microsoft sees threats going down some 30 percent for high vulnerabilities in the half of the last year. I'll take that. Want more, but I'll take that.
I know this item will aggravate a bunch of "Dune" fans, many of whom swallowed all 14 volumes, and for that I apologize. Herbert clearly has more talent in his little find than I have in my entire Periproct. I also happen to hate "Ulysses," considered the best novel ever written. Bah!
Am I wrong to think that Dune is one of the most  overwritten books out there (let's try to keep religion out of it)? Fire up your keyboard and mail missives to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 04/30/2012 at 1:19 PM