Bonum Certa Men Certa

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

Smart card



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)

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Storage and Memory Prices Are Rising Not Because of High Demand (Production Can Match Demand), It's Partly Because of Price-Fixing (Same as Food Price Increases)
Sophisticated robberies are still robberies
Thousands of Layoffs at IBM, So IBM Pays Mainstream Media to Claim That IBM is Hiring (Paid Lies)
This is a story about the media failing us, not just IBM failing as a company
A Look at DataStax Bluewashing (IBM and Layoffs)
IBM is a place that many people leave or get pushed out of
Oracle's Debt Grew by Over 50 Billion Dollars in 6 Months
Larry Ellison spent a lot of money buying a lot of the corporate media
What Linus (Torvalds, the Linux Dude) Meant by "Show Me the Code"
"Show Me the Code" is a common cultural reference
XBox Will Not Last Much Longer, XBox Chief Admits Problems
Microsoft's latest "results"
What May 1 Means to Us (and to Many Others)
To me, May 1 means something
Microsoft Lunduke is 'Pulling a Garrett' by Turning Technical and Legal Debate Over Rust Into a 'Trans Debate'
Don't fall for the demagogue
 
Links 02/05/2026: Gen Z is Turning Against Slop and OpenAI/Microsoft Rift Explained
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/05/2026: Leaving Session, Alhena 5.5.7, and Slop Failing Customers
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, May 01, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, May 01, 2026
Links 01/05/2026: Microsoft 'Headcount' Decreasing, Apple Quietly Killing Vision Pro
Links for the day
In Praise of Debian
30 hours ago we began an upgrade
Yes, GNU/Linux Can Run on Playstation 5, But Don't Buy It, Learn From Sony's Past of Rootkit and PS3 Betrayal
Millions of Playstation 3 owners will never forget what Sony did to them
Dealing With Demagogue in Free Software
Don't spread their ideology and never participate in any of their projects
Links 01/05/2026: Regulatory Trouble for Apple, Now Even Mozilla Pushes Back Against Google
Links for the day
Microsoft "Buyout" Offer is Less Than One Year's Salary
So our assumption about this was correct
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - European Patent Office Managers Have Crossed Red Lines, According to Themselves
The girlfriend of the President of the European Patent Office (EPO) is trying to muzzle EPO critics
Techrights is Still Growing, Attacking Techrights Does Not Weaken the Community
Bullying us for 2+ years does not result in fear, it results in us feeling more emboldened and motivated
SLAPP Censorship - Part 63 Out of 200: Graveley as a Stripped-Down Version of Garrett in the Particulars of Claim (5RB Barrister Could Do This in One Minute)
Lazily and sloppily, it looks like the barrister took Garrett's claims and tweaked them a little (shortened) for Graveley
Lots of People Leave IBM, Today IBM Has About 1,000 Workers Fewer Than Yesterday
Confluent "last day" for 800+ people
Been a Very Busy Week
Next week, as we have no upgrades to prepare for, we should be able to publish at the usual pace of 20+ pages per day
In New Letter Sent to Chair and Heads of Delegation of the Administrative Council of the European Patent Organisation the Staff Union Explains How to End European Patent Office Strikes
If Campinos continues to behave as he does right now, the Council can show him the door
Links 01/05/2026: Poems and Continuous Privacy Policy
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 30, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, April 30, 2026
Microsoft Debt Rose Almost $50 Billion Since We Moved to Debian
GAFAM has a new name for debt
Google News Sloppy Again
Today was disappointing
European Patent Office Management Mocked for Trying to 'Bribe' Staff With a Little Food
The Office is having a crisis; a little breakfast treat won't solve it
SLAPP Censorship - Part 62 Out of 200: Garrett and Graveley Issue Astounding Copy-Paste Masterpiece Asserting Publicly-Accessible Embarrassing Facts Must Remain Hidden
Are Garrett and Graveley twins separated at birth but joined by GNOME and Microsoft?
Links 30/04/2026: Barrage of Lawsuits Against Slop, Microsoft's Stock Crashes
Links for the day
Microsoft Says Mass Layoffs Are Coming and Puts a Price on Them
Microsoft will shrink
The Corporate Media Intentionally Overlooks How Google's Debt Trebles in Just Over a Year
We'll soon see how much more money Microsoft has borrowed
(Trigger Warning) Jeremy Bicha & Debian-Edu, TecKids, Ubuntu incest scandal at DebConf25
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Upgrade Successful
we had a downtime of only 1-2 minutes overall (for two reboots)
Links 30/04/2026: Slop Industry Cannot Keep Up With Bills, "The World Is Getting Too Hot to Feed Itself"
Links for the day
Then Come the DDoS Attacks
Is someone trying to 'kill' Techrights?
The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part X - Deliberately Violate European Patent Convention (EPC), Tolerate Cocaine Use in Management, Hide That From Staff and Stakeholders
The "Alicante Mafia" (as staff calls it) is a disgrace to Europe
The Register MS Running Spam Pieces for Huawei, a Banned Company
Money does not excuse bad behaviour
Apparently Last Day for Nearly 1,000 Confluent Workers IBM Laid Off Last Month
IBM is a dying company pretending to be strong because of its age
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Gemini Links 30/04/2026: Outdoor Time, Old Computers, and Joining Geminispace
Links for the day