worms: they're not just fish bait anymore!

I was at the post office yesterday morning when one of the computers crashed, taking down one of the 3 open stations. the frustrated clerk waited for it to reboot, and since I was next in line I helpfully commented, "oh, it's probably that Microsoft worm that's going around!" (she grimaced). the screens at the other stations looked suspiciously like OS/2 (touch screen) but I couldn't tell without seeing more.

Reminds me of an ATM that I wandered across, several years ago; instead of the usual [INSERT CARD] ASCII screen, it was sitting at an OS/2 boot prompt. Eeeuooops! Needless to say, it didn't respond to my touchscreen commands, so I had to go elsewhere. I can only assume that they had to dispatch a technician to manually reboot the ATM.

An article in this morning's Dallas Managed News says that 60%+ of the targeted systems (WinXP; Win2K; Win2003, etc.) have never been patched! I even saw a story yesterday where a schoolteacher routinely said [NO] whenever the WinXP message "A Critical Update Has Been Received. Install now?" appeared. She assumed this was always a virus, so she had a completely vulnerable, patch-free system. Another reader complained that he spent several thousand dollars on his PC and wasn't about to spend more money (and time) maintaining it!

Yikes! I sit behind a router and a firewall, update my Win2K system whenever a Critical Update is available, and suck down the anti-virus signatures about twice a week. The DMN article says that many people are still on dialup (I'm on DSL) and don't get the patches because it takes too long. The article did NOT say how long it will take to repair the damage, only that many stores are selling anti-virus software like crazy (but again, didn't mention that any fresh installs should be IMMEDIATELY accompanied by a download of updated virus signatures -- those CDs on the store shelves are months old and mostly useless without a recent update).

since DSL now costs $30/month and dialup is still $20/month, I cannot understand why anyone would still subject themselves to (pig slow) dialup 56k if they're in an area covered by DSL or (often faster) cable modem.