A good reason to drop XP and adopt Windows 7

[echrada]

Hackers target Microsoft Windows XP support system

Hi-tech criminals are "escalating" attacks on an unpatched bug in the Windows XP help and support system.

Microsoft said it had seen more than 10,000 machines hit by the attack that, so far, it has not found a fix for.

Windows PCs falling victim will have control of that machine handed over to attackers.

Microsoft said the attacks had gone from theoretical to real very quickly and urged users to take steps to protect themselves.

BBC News - Hackers target Microsoft Windows XP support system

 

[DeaconFrost]

This could be #542 on the list of reasons to drop XP in favor of Windows 7.

 

[Kirsch]

This could be #542 on the list of reasons to drop XP in favor of Windows 7.

seconded

Good post though

 

[chev65]

The security on XP just went from bad to worse,..and I didn't think that was possible.

 

[unifex]

Wouldn't a NAT firewall in one's router protect one's computer from any such attack?

 

[gregrocker]

XPired.

:ar:

 

[motc7]

How about this...

Drop XP for 7 because XP is craptastic.

 

[websquad]

I have all three of my machines (well, the computers I really use) in some version of Win 7: Home/32; Home/64; and Pro/64. Win 7 boots up much faster; it shuts off much faster; it hibernates much faster, and it wakes up from hibernation much faster. Did I say it was faster ??

One machine (my Laptop) came with Win 7/home/64; I upgraded one machine (my Netbook) from XP to Win 7/home/32 from XP -- that was a trivial effort. Finally, I upgraded my desktop, with two RAID arrays, from XP/Pro to Win 7/Pro/64, and it was a non-trivial effort, primarily because of some mistakes I made (but was bailed out by good advice on this forum).

In all cases, I'm pleased with the upgrade, and would not consider going back.

 

[Jugador]

Wouldn't a NAT firewall in one's router protect one's computer from any such attack?

Not sure, but a good security suite should take care of it. Norton had already updated my "Intrusion Prevention System signature set" which "enables Norton to detect and block exploitation" of the HTTP Microsoft Windows Help Center Remote Code Exec

Thanks for the heads-up echrada! After reading your post, I checked with Norton, and found they had already updated me for this threat. Probably the best $50 a year I could spend (Norton) for this PC.

 

[Bill2]

Win7 doesnt need attackers, it has MS. Frankly, look at the number of bsod complaints, the crashes and debugging threads are the most active.

Few more days for SP1...

 

[Aphelion]

Disable "Help" in services and be on with it.

Win XP is still better (more efficient) with some real-time tasks than Win-7. Also, what the #$%^& did Win-7 do to the audio system, it's a tangled mess with dozens of inconsistencies.

 

[noobvious]

Win7 doesnt need attackers, it has MS. Frankly, look at the number of bsod complaints, the crashes and debugging threads are the most active.

Few more days for SP1...

Can't forget the famous PEBKAC syndrome.....