[FARC] Just in Time for Halloween - Another Windows Worm

[Bob Moroney]

Thanks, David. 

What you describe is true, but for us folks that use dial-up of one kind 
or another, jumping on- and off-line as needed, automatic updates can be 
an iffy thing. 

The description of the worm indicated that no user action was required 
for "infection" to occur, so that may account for some of the urgency 
and the recommendation to do a manual patch.  It's not very involved or 
intrusive to do it manually, since the download is small and it appears 
that a shutdown/restart will not be automatically prompted if the patch 
has already been installed by other means.

Also, I noticed that the related patch for Vista is labeled  
"Windows6.0-KB958644-x86.msu".  Joe NE3R was talking about Vista (aka 
Windows 6.0) and the upcoming 7.0 at the meeting on Monday, but I hadn't 
previously seen such a direct reference, from Microsoft, no less.

73, Bob K9CMR
(longing for the 7.0's)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Matthews wrote:
>
> Most XP and Vista systems are set up to automatically download and 
> install updates.  If your machine is set up this way, you don't need 
> to manually patch.  In XP, to check whether you already have the patch:
>
> 1) Go to Control Panel and select Add/Remove Programs.
>
> 2) When the program list comes up, check the box which says "Show 
> Updates"
>
> 3) Going from the bottom of the list upward, look for an update 
> identified as KB958644.  If it's there then you don't need to do this 
> patch, your computer has already done it for you.  Close the 
> Add/Remove Programs window.
>
> I assume the procedure to check Vista is similar, but since I've had 
> the very good fortune to avoid using Vista, I can't comment on the 
> specifics.
>
>
> ----------
>
> Bob Moroney wrote:
>> I just got an email alert concerning a worm-type virus that can 
>> infect any recent version of Windows. The alert strongly advised 
>> manually installing the appropriate patch, available from Microsoft 
>> at one of the following links: