Using worms to find vulnerable machines and patch them

Another brilliant Microsoft idea

 

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

 

......and just how long to you think it will take the Crackers to use this latest and greatest MS idea to their advantage?

 

Oh yeah, I see nothing going wrong here.

 

Really do not see the need. Has`t it already been proven and documented that MS downloaded, without EU`s permission "updates" of some sort. Was discussed on this very Forum as well. Just to lazy to do a search for the thread.

 

So you like to be omega(flee), I prefer alpha(fight).

 

Perhaps I'm jumping to conclusions too early, but this looks really bad:
- What will impede the bad guys to reverse engineer the worm and use its propagation engine in their own creations?
- Doesn't this open new avenues for social engineering?
- Will we have to have open ports, services listening to allow this worm to work?
- What if this worm carries other payload than patches? I can imagine Microsoft trying to validate Windows installs with this worm.
- If we don't accept it, will it waste our bandwidth trying to patch our machines?

 

All good questions, and there will probably be more that may never get answered at least by MS. Stay tuned to As the MS Worm Turns.

 

They have a good idea on this. The problem is, crackers will always find ways to get into a vulnerable, yet profitable machines. If they ever get hands with this, then the worm history will repeat itself. Making a good and secure worm is somethin' MS can take ages to perfect, as much as their OSes.

 

The flight versus fight question has been a constant behaviorial choice issue for many. Some wish to run away and then fight another day while some want to take a stand right now and suffer the consequences at that time. It all depends on the situation and whether delaying the inevitable will prove to be of any use. MS apparently wants to try to employ a tactic that others have used to defeat their software and instead to turn it into a beneficial purpose. That may or may not be a good decision.

 

I had my (little) hopes that Microsoft still has some amount of sense. This correction to the original story proves that.