Companies and home users should use Microsoft`s Windows Update service immediately, before it comes under attack from systems infected with the MSBlast worm this Saturday say security experts according to a ZDNet UK article.
The MSBlast worm has been spreading quickly around the globe since Monday by infecting systems that do not have adequate firewall protection. The worm exploits a vulnerability in Windows 2000, Windows XP and possibly NT4 and has been designed to launch a simultaneous attack on the Windows Update Web site from Saturday 16 August.
The attack is unlike any seen before and Microsoft could find it difficult to keep its Windows Update service running.
Jason Holloway, UK general manager at mobile security company F-Secure, believes that although a patch that fixes the exploit has been available for around a month, only half of all computers running a vulnerable version of Windows will have applied it.
Holloway said that when a similar attack took place on the White House Web site last year, "it wasn`t very hard to knock it offline." If enough machines are infected, the Windows Update Web server`s performance will significantly degrade and it could fall over completely: "We can`t guarantee that the site will be around afterwards," said Holloway.
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