friday five

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hee hee

Windows users who haven't been to Windows Update for security and other sundry updates lately, be aware that the URL is http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. It used to be that http://windowsupdate.com would redirect you to the right place. Until yesterday, that is.

Why? Blaster aka LoveSan. Yes, folks...

[S]tarting at midnight local time on Aug. 16, infected computers that have not cleaned up the virus will in effect turn into a legion of zombies instructed to repeatedly call up a Microsoft Web site that houses the software patch. [...] But there's a flaw. The worm instructed computers to call up http://windowsupdate.com — which is an incorrect address for reaching the actual Microsoft Web site that houses the software patch. Although Microsoft has long redirected those who visited that incorrect address to the real site — http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com — the company disabled the automatic redirection Thursday in preparation for the onslaught of infected computers. - Seattle Times article

I expect the net to be slow tomorrow due to increased traffic, but if you don't already have the patch you can still get it at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com - be sure to install ms03-026. More info is at: http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-026.asp (enduser version) and http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-026.asp (techie version).