The world is getting excited again about the CodeRed worm, which
infects Microsoft Internet Information Servers (IIS) and attacks
the White House's website. This worm relies on a flaw in IIS for
which Microsoft provided a fix well over a month ago, but there is
concern that system administrators have been slow to act.
"CodeRed not only infects your server, it also generates huge
amounts of unnecessary internet traffic," warns Paul Ducklin,
Sydney-based Head of Global Support at Sophos Anti-Virus. "So
having an unpatched server is irresponsible, because you put
yourself at risk whilst spoiling things for others."
Sophos is calling on Australian system administrators who use
IIS not to be bludgers. "Get the fix and use it,"
Ducklin urges. "Those who attack computer systems with worms and
viruses are criminals, make no mistake about it. But that is no
excuse for sitting back and waiting to become a victim. If you use
IIS and you haven't acted already, do so now."
CodeRed is not the only malicious software to highlight
tardiness amongst sysadmins. The Kakworm virus, which spreads via
email, is still regularly reported in Australia. But, like CodeRed,
a patch from Microsoft renders
it (and any virus like it) completely ineffective. The fix for
Kakworm was published in 1999, but despite nearly two years of
warnings, many computers round Australia remain vulnerable.
Sophos Anti-Virus has published a 'Safe Hex' guide which helps
users and administrators to reduce the chance of getting hit by a
virus -- regardless of what anti-virus software they use. "Check it
out," says Ducklin. "Technology alone is not enough -- you need to
stay informed to stay safe."
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.