"Flame" Virus Freaking Out Cybersecurity Personnel Worldwide
- Thread starter Hevva
- Start date
Wow, as terrible as this virus is, I can't help but feel amazed at the sheer scope and awesomeness of its capabilities.
Inside I'm saying "Wow, now THAT'S a virus."
Inside I'm saying "Wow, now THAT'S a virus."
Everyone who's afraid of using WU:
You can more or less relax. This hasn't been targeted at you yet and cannot spoof WU unless you are already compromised by something else, in many affected system's cases an infected USB flash drive.
Microsoft has released an update to partially fix this problem, which may just be the update many of you saw "last night" or "while I was reading this". It's KB2718704. If you've got it, then you're probably OK until they come up with a more permanent solution.
You can more or less relax. This hasn't been targeted at you yet and cannot spoof WU unless you are already compromised by something else, in many affected system's cases an infected USB flash drive.
Microsoft has released an update to partially fix this problem, which may just be the update many of you saw "last night" or "while I was reading this". It's KB2718704. If you've got it, then you're probably OK until they come up with a more permanent solution.
TBH theres a lot of hyperbole in the OP. It has freaked out companies such as Kaspersky as they've only just been able to pick it up. And to those of you who don't do windows updates, don't be stupid as you generally are leaving more security gaps and exploits open for other attackers or malicious code to take advantage of and in fact that's one of the ways I think flame can spoof being an update, as the outdated update program's certificates (essentially confirmation that the program you're downloading is the one you've requested) may wrong or out of date.
If you are scared about getting various baddies through a windows update I'm fairly sure windows has a database of the available updates, which may help you comb out some of the more obvious ones.
Hope that makes some people feel better, just be careful
If you are scared about getting various baddies through a windows update I'm fairly sure windows has a database of the available updates, which may help you comb out some of the more obvious ones.
Hope that makes some people feel better, just be careful
I read all windows update descriptions and chose what to install. yesterday a update poped up with "certificate unverifier" and along those lines and my thinking was "i dont want microsoft to have its say about what certificates i trust, to hell with it" and so i avoided the virus 
So a virus that passes itself as a windows update can be patch by installing a windows update?
do i update? Do i dont? Do i update? ...
do i update? Do i dont? Do i update? ...
I've always pretty much assumed that whatever email I write and whatever strange things I look for on a Google search--there is someone and probably multiple people that have access to it, if they were in a mind to read it.
For most of us, they are going to be searching for key words to send us the right advertisements. If other than that you mostly obey the law, nobody is going to care about what you write or what you say. Just be mindful around online banking.
For most of us, they are going to be searching for key words to send us the right advertisements. If other than that you mostly obey the law, nobody is going to care about what you write or what you say. Just be mindful around online banking.
the obvious defense against this is to just leave your computer on when you sleep, with lemonparty open on your browser. Full screen.
Imagine being the guy who would have to go through all 8-12 hours of that. If you open an IM in the background, that's 4x60x8= 1920 screenshots. They'd probably get to about 12 and skip to #200, skip to #1000, and then just quit their job.
Imagine being the guy who would have to go through all 8-12 hours of that. If you open an IM in the background, that's 4x60x8= 1920 screenshots. They'd probably get to about 12 and skip to #200, skip to #1000, and then just quit their job.
Yeah, no, I never trust Windows Updates anyway; all they do is steal valuable memory from my computer without giving anything back in return. >.>
Also, my bet's always on the CIA and/or DARPA with this sort of thing. And this exactly is why we need legal infrastructure surrounding cyber affairs! This kinda thing is getting eerily close to 1984 for my liking...
Also, my bet's always on the CIA and/or DARPA with this sort of thing. And this exactly is why we need legal infrastructure surrounding cyber affairs! This kinda thing is getting eerily close to 1984 for my liking...
Therefore you just ignored the exact update that is meant to address this virus.Strazdas said:I read all windows update descriptions and chose what to install. yesterday a update poped up with "certificate unverifier" and along those lines and my thinking was "i dont want microsoft to have its say about what certificates i trust, to hell with it" and so i avoided the virus
There's no reason ever for anyone to ignore security updates.Aeshi said:
Now, now, that's all conjecture. What we need to do is stay calm and- hmm... my internet's been running a little poorly since last month and I'm sure I had a Windows Update around that time... *exerts great thinking power* OH NO! 0.0Risingblade said:
... Yes. We all have a classified virus on our computer that is monitoring us. Never mind that it has been found exclusively in the Middle East and is most likely to spy on hostile foreign governments. I'm sure they would much rather look at the super important itel gathered from these forums.