Flaw Affects Computers Worldwide Outside the USA bug that has existed for five years and which only affects computers outside the United States has become active again. According to a report from Associated Press, Volish engineers worked frantically during the holiday break of Thanksgiving to develop a fix for the flaw. While on the job, they wrote the fix for computers all over the world that could be vulnerable except for those in the US. At the New Zealand hosted Kiwicon hacker conference in the third week of November 2007, Beau Butler, a hacker believing in morals, demonstrated the bug and its activity. The Age published this in news on November 26, 2007. A major vulnerability in Microsoft Windows, the bug could make millions of PCs worldwide vulnerable to computer criminals' hacking attacks. By exploiting this flaw, it could take only one miscreant to acquire control over huge numbers of office and home computers with the launch of just one attack, evading the most powerful firewalls. The flaw is capable of stealing passwords, reading data, and tracking users' online activities. It could also help spread viruses and spam. The security problem is with WPAD, i.e., Windows Proxy Autodiscovery functionality. When Mr. Butler tested the vulnerability, he found some 160,000 PCs in New Zealand that were vulnerable to the flaw. He also found that PCs within the US borders were not exposed but those of many other countries were open. According to Microsoft, it came to know about the problem only when The Age informed it in the third week of November 2007. The company confirmed the severity of the issue and asked specialists not to publish the details of the attack to prevent cyber criminals from waging possible attacks on workstations at different parts of the world. The flaw influences all Windows version including the latest Vista OS. But it does not necessarily affect every computer running Windows, said Microsoft's General Manager of Product Security, George Stathakopoulos. Theage.com.au published this on November 26, 2007. Butler was shocked to discover that the bug still created a problem in the latest operating systems of Microsoft. Related article: Flaw For PayPal Website, Opportunity For Fraudsters ยป SPAMfighter News - 12/7/2007 |    |
Dear Reader
We are happy to see you are reading our IT Security News.
We do believe, that the foundation for a good work environment starts with fast, secure and high performing computers. If you agree, then you should take a look at our Business Solutions to Spam Filter & Antivirus for even the latest version of Exchange Servers - your colleagues will appreciate it!
 |  |
