BBC: “An 18-year-old German high school student has admitted creating the Sasser internet worm, police say.”
Analysts also warn that the worm will never disappear, as it doesn’t have a time limit to its operation and due to the way it distributes itself.
Attacks of this nature are always damaging to Microsoft and .NET developers looking to see Windows used more predominately in the server market.
The future however, looks slightly brighter. XP Service Pack 2, which includes changes to core architecture within Windows (the way in which RPC is handled, and memory management) is in a free technical preview, and with its simplified and co-ordinated new Windows Update service, it is hoped such attacks will become much harder.
May 9th, 2004 at 2:32 am
Lock him up and throw away the key. No matter how much you hate MS, the incredible costs to the IT industry and the number of companies that are getting fed up with these disruptions to business, puts all IT workers jobs at risk.
May 9th, 2004 at 5:21 am
.
Pisses me truly off to read comment like this. The ones that should go to jail are those consultants that still make companies waste incredible amount of money in licensed sofware that prove so weak when it comes to security matters.
May 10th, 2004 at 12:52 am
I gotta Agree with the last comment. Consultants are continously pushing Companies with “No Clue” to upgrade their software & servers to “Microsoft”, which gives them a nice slice of the Pie. I may be wrong here, but I do know that using products like”Debian” can save large & small businesses a lot of money.
In an ideal world (yeah right) it would be nice if these “Hackers” spent their time on positive coding, something to help developments like Debian.
then again, these hackers keep developers in work….
Vicious cycle.. =)
May 10th, 2004 at 3:32 am
Employ his skills in a positive way. Security expert or something. It’s a damn shame when great thinkers put their minds to no good.
May 10th, 2004 at 3:57 am
It’s equally the case that Microsoft products can save business a lot of money.
The hackers don’t keep developers in work, they simply detract their attention from important development into patching what isn’t secure.
The vicious cycle is that more and more development time has to be made into securing products than innovating.
May 10th, 2004 at 4:14 am
It’s interesting to say that XP-SP2 will run under pirated copies too.
May 10th, 2004 at 4:16 am
Hey Miseldine,
I think you misinterpited my comment I am not saying it’s a good thing. You are just never going to stop it. of course it is a waste of IT professionals/developers time.
I was actually advocating for hackers to do good in the world.
But i am being realistic, how can you stop a virus when it spreads?.
- put yourself into quarentine or buy a Mac. =) (Joke)
What can you Do?. Absolutely Squat unfortunately. =(
May 12th, 2004 at 8:59 am
“The vicious cycle is that more and more development time has to be made into securing products than innovating.”
Something which has plagued Microsoft developers moreso than say Debian. It can also be argued that Microsoft got themselves into the vicious cycle by innovating first, securing second
June 6th, 2004 at 6:12 pm
i agree with employing the 18yr old programmer..
why not give him a job where he can develope his skills..
let him do like 300 hours of community service… (=