As Net attack eases, blame game surges

CNN ^ | January 27, 2003 | Jeordan Legon

[HAL9000]

Some Bank of America ATMs were still out Monday, primarily in the Southeast, a bank spokesman said. And analysts blamed a dip in South Korea's stock market on the worm taking down most Internet connections in the country over the weekend.

[TommyDale]

I would like to know if Bank of America actually shut down the ATM machines themselves, out of fear. Other banks' ATM machines are NOT connected via the internet. If BofA did connect via the internet, I really question their competence. In fact, many banks still use the old bisync and X.25 for their ATM machines.

[dwollmann]

Thank Clinton, Gore, et al for promoting the "Information Superhighway" in order to create a false economic boom. The Internet is and always has been the Rain-soaked Information Dirt Road with Deep Wagon Wheel Ruts. It will be several years and many painful reimplementations of core standards before the Internet can be considered a "safe place to play" or truly reliable in any sense, if it ever happens.

[The Duke]

"Internet", is that thing still running? I thought it went out with the Dot-Bombs, and was tossed on to the trash heap of history alongside CB radios???

[Steven W.]

It's always so funny to read non-technical types try and report on technical issues because they always unveil their lack of knowledge or stupidity: private Web to use a separate, yet-to-be-invented "secure Internet" yet to be invented ??? What a moron! they're called "intranets" duh!

[Publius6961]

Did anyone officially keep track of how many MS "XP" owners were left high and dry for days trying to contact Microshaft to be able to use software they already paid for?

[Steven W.]

I don't know anyone using XP who was affected by it (no problems for all MS users in my neck of the woods).

[jammer]

If the patch is so easy and obvious to apply, why didn't MS apply it themselves? Why did they get bitten?

[Ichneumon]

If the patch is so easy and obvious to apply, why didn't MS apply it themselves? Why did they get bitten?

They did apply, it, they didn't get bitten.

The folks who got bitten were the companies who bought SQL Server before the bug (and patch) were identified, then never got around to checking for patches (or never installed them).

Microsoft can't visit every company in the world to see whether they're running old software which hasn't yet been patched. Keeping software updated propery is the responsibility of the companies who buy the software.

It's like Ford issuing a recall to fix a known problem on your model of car. You still have to bring in your car to have the repair applied, Ford can't be expected to try to figure out where you've got your car parked and come do it for you.

[jammer]

They did apply, it, they didn't get bitten

Gosh, I guess I entirely misread this (you'll have to cut and paste, no link, sorry). http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/830720/posts

As for the rest of your post, no condescension needed, thanks.