Even with all the auto-patches and stuff it can’t help those that are completely clueless.
It would be nice if companies could force patch your system but then they’d get sued.
Smug might be self gratifying though.
I have all my auto updates off, because that constant running in the back ground drives me nuts. It slows my system down. But, I have a little app that I can add reminders to and it’ll pop up a window to remind me to update. I do updates on my virus scanner ever few days and my other patches I check about once a month unless I get some kind of notice. Maybe I should do it more often, but, I don’t.
Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm targeting the Microsoft Windows operating system that was first detected in November 2008.[1] It uses flaws in Windows software and Dictionary attacks on administrator passwords to co-opt machines and link them into a virtual computer that can be commanded remotely by its authors. Conficker has since spread rapidly into what is now believed to be the largest computer worm infection since the 2003 SQL Slammer,[2] with more than seven million government, business and home computers in over 200 countries now under its control. The worm has been unusually difficult to counter because of its combined use of many advanced malware techniques
Technology companies and experts across the globe have been working together to halt the spread of Conficker, disrupt its communications and uncover who created the worm. Microsoft has even issued a $250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Conficker’s authors. Despite the security sector’s best efforts, very little is known about the origins of Conficker or its purpose. Nevertheless, some breakthroughs have been achieved. On March 30, Security experts with the Honeynet Project discovered a flaw in Conficker that makes it much easier to detect infection. IBM researcher Mark Yayson also believes he has discovered a way to “detect and interrupt the program’s activities,” according to The New York Times.