The first question I always ask myself when I see something like this is: “Why was it necessary to have this system connected to the web?”
If the answer is “Convenience” well, I can think of a lot of people who are going to be inconvenienced if the system goes down because of improper security.
From reading the article, I don’t see any reason for these systems to be this vulnerable.
This is not a Windows issue.
This is poorly implemented security, at best.
They can infect systems without them being connected to the Internet. I think I read somewhere that some new, in-the-box thumbdrives and harddrives that were being sold in stores were infected. Connect it to a network and you are done.
Also, this article said that this particular worm can stay dormant, so you might not even know it’s there, until the time for when it’s programmed to do its damage.
They can infect systems without them being connected to the Internet. I think I read somewhere that some new, in-the-box thumbdrives and harddrives that were being sold in stores were infected. Connect it to a network and you are done.
Also, this article said that this particular worm can stay dormant, so you might not even know it’s there, until the time for when it’s programmed to do its damage.
Thumbdrives are probably the biggest phyical security hazard today.
If I was in charge ,the computers at my workplace would have all those ports shut off,maybe phyically blocked as well.Employees routinely bring in thumbrives full of music and vacation pictures to show others or play while working.From a security standpoint,any company that allows this is foolish.
Unfortuneately some expensive software uses "secure" thumbdrives as license keys;that makes disconnecting the port a problem.
From what I understand, the Suxnet is not coming over the web, but from infected USB memory sticks.
People give these things away like candy, pass them around all over the place, and you really have no idea what may be on them.
Be careful with them and never use one in an important device.