03.16.10
Kaspersky Slams Windows for Insecurity, Microsoft Delivers Bad Patches and Leaves Windows Exposed
Summary: Security guru Eugene Kaspersky has harsh words for Microsoft, which still fails to secure its platform and even patch software without breaking it
IT HAS been another tough week for Windows, which simply cannot be secured, not even with ‘snake oil’ software that’s called “anti-virus” (unless the placebo effect counts).
A few months ago we wrote about Microsoft being allowed into Ford cars. There are already security concerns about that at Ford. They worry about Windows/WiFi in the car getting hijacked.
“Sadly, we live in a world where Microsoft pressures journalists to misreport incidents.”We wish to discuss for a moment an interesting phenomenon. When a car breaks down (let us say a Toyota), the news will say a Toyota car is having issues, it won’t say that cars in general have issues. That’s because the market is full of choices. Yes, choices, diversity, not “fragmentation” as Microsoft would probably put it. If “Windows” is embedded in PCs, then Windows can become interchangeable and synonymous with “computing”. Then, people would not realise what’s really wrong and that they also have better choices. Sadly, we live in a world where Microsoft pressures journalists to misreport incidents. Taken from a long discussion we’ve had by E-mails for a few days now, consider the fact that we have documented examples where journalists received mail from Microsoft’s PR agencies (e.g. W-E) to tell them off and ask them to change articles about Windows security. The Inquirer is good in that regard because without much reluctance it spilled the beans when that happened. We have given articles from them where content was being tempered by Microsoft PR agencies, whose job was to spin the vulnerabilities in Vista.
Reporters who are contacted because they describe Windows security problems as just “computer problems” often cite the “popularity” myth of Windows as the cause. It’s PR. Given the widespread use of GNU/Linux in servers and devices everywhere, people should struggle to reason about lack of cracking as related to “popularity”. Windows is not popular by the way, it’s just ubiquitous*. Moreover, Microsoft commissions and manufactures its own ‘studies’ where it hides flaws and reports bogus numbers. There are many examples to that effect.
Here is what Eugene Kaspersky said about Windows earlier this month:
Security chief Eugene Kaspersky has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft’s security record.
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There are already some new examples of Microsoft’s poor patching. Last week Microsoft delivered broken/rogue security patches and later admitted the problem which had the following effect:
Microsoft confirmed today that a security update for its Excel spreadsheet had turned English text in an important Windows tool into Chinese.
The admission was the second in the past two days from Microsoft’s Office team of a gaffe involving a recent security update.
How does Microsoft break languages while fixing a security problem? One might remark that this implies poor software design.
Speaking of Office, this area is in a state of transition in an economy where people use Free software or access software in the form of a service. Don Reisinger, typically a troll/baiter who writes bizarre reversals of truths at CNET, explains some of the issues and Microsoft resorts to more AstroTurfing by offering money to those who create “viral Office 2010 videos” for YouTube.
Want a chance to win $10,000 for your small Seattle business or start-up? The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and Microsoft have partnered up in a contest for making videos about Office 2010.
In case it sounds familiar, it should. Microsoft also hires people to post comments favourable to Windows in social networking sites.
Anyway, going back to the subject of insecurity, someone writes a guest post at ZDNet about “the cadence of Microsoft security patches” and ECT notes that Windows is already vulnerable again, as usual.
The expected batch of patches wasn’t the only thing Windows users got with Microsoft’s latest Patch Tuesday update. The set of fixes was accompanied by a warning about an unpatched zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer.
All that Microsoft can offer is a workaround:
Microsoft has revised their advisory for the newest IE 0Day vulnerability to note that working exploit code is now available and that they are aware of “targeted attacks attempting to use this vulnerability.” They have also created “Microsoft Fix it” links to disable and re-enable the vulnerable software components.
The Inquirer wrote:
The flaw in Internet Exploder versions 6 and 7 allows an attacker to take control of a victim’s computer.
Internet Explorer was the cause of a lot of damage earlier this year [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]. In 4 countries, authorities recommended that citizens abandon Internet Explorer. █
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* It’s more about reminding reporters that people choose to buy a computer, they don’t choose to buy Windows. Calling Windows “popular” is like calling cockroaches “popular” because there are many of them out there. It ought to be one of those things that people should train themselves to avoid saying because Windows is not “popular”.
