09.23.09
Gemini version available ♊︎Sydney Morning Herald: Conficker Leads to “Internet Meltdown Threat”
Summary: Conficker can still take entire nations off-line, warn experts; another new threat called Clampi affects only Windows
AUSTRALIA seriously pondered banning (from the Internet) Microsoft Windows PCs that are not properly secured or like hundreds of millions of other Windows PCs, are outside the control of the intended user.
Conficker is far from dead [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] and the Australian press warns about it again.
Internet meltdown threat: Conficker worm refuses to turn
[...]
The worm, first detected in November last year, spreads rapidly to computers through a flaw in the Windows operating system.
Infected machines are co-opted into a “botnet” army, which can be controlled and used by the hackers to launch unprecedented cyber attacks.
There is another newly-developing plague called Clampi (mentioned yesterday). It affects only Windows PCs and the following new article makes it even more explicit:
Only computers running various Windows operating systems are affected. The virus cannot install itself on Linux based systems.
This ought to remind people that Linux/UNIX PCs are inherently more secure. █
“Anyone wonder why the Microsoft SQL server is called the sequel server? Is that because no matter what version it’s at there’s always going to be a sequel needed to fix the major bugs and security flaws in the last version?”
–Unknown
ᶃ Gemini Space
This post is also available in 
Content is available under CC-BY-SA
Needs Sunlight said,
September 23, 2009 at 4:19 am
There was a period where many university IT departments were starting to try banning Windows from campus networks, especially dormitories. M$ tended to stomp that.
Universities have been a problem for M$ because people with degrees usually know better than to run M$ products. You see that in the infamous “Linux Presentation”
http://boycottnovell.com/2009/08/25/microsoft-anti-linux-presentation/
Around that time, M$ started hiring shills to fake degrees. Evil doesn’t go away, it just moves around. Where did these lay preachers, mislabeled as “interns” by M$ marketing, end up finally for their proselytization and subversion activities?
Will said,
September 23, 2009 at 8:57 am
Universities are where lots of people get their first good exposure to Microsoft alternatives. Seems like Art departments almost exclusively run Macs, and anyone getting an technical degree (math, engineering, science, comp sci, etc.) has a very good chance of being exposed to Linux. It also helps that, IMO, you tend to find a higher than average concentration of “anything but Microsoft” professors in the technical fields.