Graham Cluley Microsoft Quotations

I am also curious to see whether Microsoft will release its own anti-virus software with the service pack.

It has obviously taken longer for Microsoft to release a patch for the WMF flaw on the Vista platform than current versions of Windows, but that's because Vista isn't yet released and it was a higher priority to protect the shipping versions of Windows.

It appears that whoever wrote Zotob had access to the Mytob source code, ripped out the email-spreading section, and plugged in the Microsoft exploit. It's possible that several people have access to the Mytob source code - so it may not be the last we see of this Internet scourge.

It appears whoever wrote Zotob had access to the Mytob source code, ripped out the email-spreading section and plugged in the Microsoft exploit.

To the untrained eye Mytob and Zotob can appear quite different: one group of viruses travels via email, the other primarily by exploiting a Microsoft security hole.

Every month Microsoft releases security patches for its software - and it's often a race against time for companies to roll these patches out across their business before a hacker takes advantage of the vulnerability. A security hole which allows hackers with malicious intentions to run code on Windows or Apple Mac computers is very serious, and all affected users should ensure they have defended their systems.

The bad news is that most people think the situation is going to get worse for Macintosh users, and more threats will be targeted against the Apple community. The good news is that most don't believe it will ever be as big a problem as the one Microsoft Windows faces. What's perhaps surprising is that there is a hardcore element of 21% who believe that threat attempts against Mac users will not grow.

It's disturbing to see a second worm for Mac OS X so soon after the first, but it should be remembered that this is only two compared to well over 100,000 viruses for Microsoft operating systems.

If you were planning a romantic date with someone from your IT department on Tuesday night, think again. Companies have been hanging on, waiting for the official fix from Microsoft for this serious security problem. Businesses will be eager to roll out these security patches as soon as possible to ensure their networks are properly defended. Any vulnerable computer user should update their systems at the earliest opportunity following the release of the patches on Tuesday.

However, when examined by an experienced virus analyst the similarities become clear. It appears that whoever wrote Zotob had access to the Mytob source code, ripped out the email-spreading section, and plugged in the Microsoft exploit.