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Microsoft Takes Responsibility for Internet Explorer Chaos, Conficker Damage Carries on

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Summary: Just as Microsoft pretends that the attacks on Google are no big deal it turns out that Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the sole culprit

"Adobe Flaw Wasn’t Part of Attack on Google," says this latest news report from IDG and Microsoft is almost accepting liability by admitting that Internet Explorer is the culprit. "Cyberattacks are an unfortunate way of life," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to CNBC regarding these attacks after his own incompetence caused these issues. This sums up a discussion (and at times heated argument) that we had in previous posts on the subject, namely:



  1. Microsoft Flaws -- Not Adobe Flaws -- Responsible for China's Attack on Google; Microsoft Takes China's Side, as Usual
  2. Chinese Google 'Attack' Involves Microsoft Windows Flaws
  3. Germany's Office for Information Security Warns Against Microsoft’s Internet Explorer After China Attacks


Germany is paying for Conficker through the nose, so it only makes sense to advise against the use of Internet Explorer (they should go further and recommend GNU/Linux). According to this weekend's news from IDG, Conficker is still alive and it's kicking hard:

Conficker Still Striking Online

Russia and Brazil are now the top hotspots for global Internet attack traffic, Net giant Akamai has said in its latest threat report, placing most of the blame on the hardy Conficker worm.


Conficker Worm Hasn't Gone Away, Akamai Says

Variants of the Conficker worm were still active and spreading during the third quarter, accounting for much of attack traffic on the Internet, according to Akamai Technologies.

"Although mainstream and industry media coverage of the Conficker worm and its variants has dropped significantly since peaking in the second quarter, it is clear from this data that the worm (and its variants) is apparently still quite active, searching out new systems to infect," Akamai said in its State of the Internet report for the third quarter of 2009, released Thursday.


For those who think that Vista 7 will change anything, we're appending some links below.

  1. Cybercrime Rises and Vista 7 is Already Open to Hijackers
  2. Vista 7: Broken Apart Before Arrival
  3. Department of Homeland Security 'Poisoned' by Microsoft; Vista 7 is Open to Hijackers Again
  4. Vista 7 Security “Cannot be Fixed. It's a Design Problem.”
  5. Why Vista 7 Could be the Least Secure Operating System Ever
  6. Journalists Suggest Banning Windows, Maybe Suing Microsoft Over DDoS Attacks
  7. Vista 7 Vulnerable to Latest “Critical” Flaws
  8. Vista 7 Seemingly Affected by Several More “Critical” Flaws This Month
  9. Reason #1 to Avoid Vista 7: Insecurity
  10. Vista 7 Left Hijackable Again (Almost a Monthly Recurrence)

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