Sasser worm - what to do...?
 

I need guidance from the IT experts.

With this sasser worm going around..... should I go ahead and install the Windows XP patches and follow the procedures that the MS website is giving out....?

Im currently looking this website:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/sasser.asp

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

G'day Gaucho,

Yes, by all means install the latest patches on your computer. I would also suggest an anti-virus software programme.

If you do not have one installed, may I suggest www.grisoft.com Click on the free version. This is an excellent piece of software that will protect your computer. It is identical to Sophos or Symantec but it is free. :cool:

Agreed you should d/l MS security updates and I read the MS stuff a firewall program such as ZoneAlarm (a free version is available) should stop it and a lotta other stuff too.

MisterNice

Grrr....
 

My wife got the thing on her laptop.

I stuck one of the removal tools on a disk, but her floppy drive refused to acknowledge the disk. So I beamed it to her, got rid of the worm, got online to get the patch, and within 3 minutes she had the worm again.

So I downloaded the patch (and several others) to my PC, going to burn a CD, and install them while she's gone this weekend, and then I should be able to get online and take a look at all the other updates, as well as some better antivirus.

When MS releases "critical" patches, I tend to install them on my laptop ASAP--since my data is backed up, I can afford to lose the machine in the event that MS sends out a bum patch--this has been known to happen.

Patching one's windows OS and keeping an updated virus scanner are critical. IMHO, if you ware not checking windows update once a day and doing the same for your virus patterns (or having the respective proggies do it for you), you are inviting exposure to something like sasser.

I don't know that a virus scanner will keep you from actually getting sasser--it might clean it when it finds it. If I get the time, I'll read the trend/symantec writeups and comment further...

Don't forget to turn on XP's firewalling (or get behind a hardware firewall if you can; if not, and you aren't running XP, by all means, purchase someone's software firewall (there are several vendors).

Most people don't need anyone connecting TO their machine (especially if you are on dialup), and it will save you from worms like these.

Steve

Critical downloads say they do not have security ID
 

I have a CWS infection as previously mentioned. This along with a bunch of other stuff is making life miserable. The machine has windows XP, factory-installed and update worked until the malware and spyware files got into the machine.

Is there a work-around to get the critical updates installed? Note: I am now using Mozilla Firefox as my default browser and many of the problems are hidden. They are not when I revert to IE. Thanks for any help.

MisterNice:

Have you installed ZoneAlarm? Any problems that some programs are not running after the installation?I use the XP firewall ... and at least all programs are still running.
I had bad experiences with other firewalls, like McAffe .. it took me several days and an IT specialist to get things running again...it was a nightmare! :mad:

I've been using ZoneAlarm for a few years now. Every day it blocks dozens of computers trying to 'access' my computer. I'm sure 95% of those attempts are benign, but it's that 5% that you just don't know about. And having ZoneAlarm allows me to sleep fine at night when viruses such as the current one come about. I highly recommend ZoneAlarm.

I'd say avoiding using....
 

Internet Explorer and all flavours of Outlook is good enough. :D

Is this supposed to be a joke? That is definitely not enough to avoid the sasser worm. This is not a simple virus spread by email. You should really install the patches and use a (hardware) firewall.

If by CWS you mean Coolwebsearch, download and run the CWShredder program. A friend's laptop was infected by CWS and it worked like a charm:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4086.html


Many other sharewar sites have CWShredder as well.

Thanks for the tips.... Ive already done the MS patches and it seems like Im clean. I already had Norton 2004 security and anti-virus programs installed, so I guess Im OK for now... ^

I've been running zonealarm for many years now and never had a problem with it. It's currently on an XP and a 98 machine at home.

For those using wireless routers, most of them also have firewall capablities built in, may be worth turning that on if it's not already on.

Critical patches, a decent firewall, and as the last line of defense up to date antivirus software.

I always install all "critical" updates. Anyone who does not is very vulnerable to attack. I also use Norton Firewall (the firewall in WinXP is too basic)
and Antivirus (both of which I update regularly - at least weekly) and have had great success in being protected. You can buy them together in the internet suite. I set those programs to automatically update and, set Win XP to automatically notify me and download upgrades. I would strongly suggest that no one access the internet without a good anti-virus and firewall installed (see PC World or PC Mag for reviews of different programs).
Practice Safe Computing