windows™ security
Now that we have the oxymoronic title of this posting out of the way I can relate something I found the other day that is actually quite useful.
Imagine that a loved one comes to you with a story about how their Windows PC is acting ”strangely”. You investigate. Oh, the horror! Faced with a neglected PC that’s being used as a spam-spewing zombie by some dodgy Floridian you decide to clean it up, only to discover that you need to suck down a couple hundred megabytes of security updates through the tiny straw that is a 56k modem.
Enter the Windows Security Update CD. It’s completely free, and covers all critical updates through to October 2003. Should save everyone a fair bit of time.
Hell, even though I’m a Mac user I ordered one. It will probably prove useful in my role as family technical support helpdesk… and if not, well I’ve just helped disperse some of Microsoft’s insane monopolist profits. So good vibes all round.
Sam
1 April 2004, 22:32 #
Thanks a lot - this should be useful :D
Martha
2 April 2004, 13:31 #
I'm amazed. I've ordered it simply because it is free. I guess it could also provide some kind of protection for my putey too - what a plus!
Gryfon
2 April 2004, 16:44 #
That's October 2003? As in *last year*? Just for interest's sake, in the five months since October 2003 what quantity and volume of Microsoft-sourced alerts, advisories, notifications, updates (working and otherwise), warnings, statements, fixes, updates to fixes, alerts that updates to fixes re-opened the security flaw, and (not that we'd forget) outright denials that there ever actually was a problem at all [and if there was (which we deny) it absolutely wasn't with a Microsoft product, nosirreebob...] have been issued? Still and all, I guess it's better than sucking a CD through a cocktail straw...
Alan
2 April 2004, 22:22 #
Even though it is five months out of date, it's still better than downloading. And given the number of people getting their machines cracked because they haven't patched for *years* five months old is almost current...