Hey computer geeks! What say you re the "fix Windows Autorun" issue?

[kay1864]

(and anybody who says "Use Linux instead" gets a poke in the nose)

Background here for those who haven't heard of it:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/20090121/tc_zd/236223
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-020A.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/22/disabling_windows_autorun/

(note the recent dates!)

Pretty easy fix, protects you against infected CD/DVDs, flash drives, digital photo frames, etc. that might contain the Downadup computer worm (which has already infected 9 million (!) PCs).

The downside seems to be that popping in a new game CD will no longer go to the Install Wizard screen, a movie DVD will no longer autoplay, plugging in your digital camera will no longer prompt you to download pictures, etc. Relatively minor, but still a loss of convenience.

My question is, is a fix like this worth it to non-savvy Grandma who only plays Diner Dash from her one and only game CD, doesn't use flash drives, etc.?

[DS1]

1. to hell with the virus, I've been wanting but too lazy to look for one of these for years

me: inserts CD

windows :Searching for content type


me: I KNOW WHAT CONTENT TYPE IT IS, FUCKO! Leave it alone

[blogslut]

2. I don't know

I'm not sure that I'm all that worried about baddies, pre-installed on my disks or thumb drives. Of course, it's been a while since I bought an actual software disk, as I usually download my programs.

Is there another way this vulnerability is being exploited other than from infected media?

[kay1864]

3. I've read a bit more...

And it's hard for me to tell if it's primarily corporate PCs on a server that are most vulnerable, or if being connected to certain domains makes you vulnerable.

http://www.internetnews.com/security/article.php/3797976/Downadup+The+Webs+Next+Big+Threat.htm
https://forums.symantec.com/t5/blogs/blogarticlepage/blog-id/malicious_code/article-id/225

Magnitude is 9 million PCs now:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126205

And of course downloaded programs are risky, if your virus software doesn't detect Downadup.

[no name no slogan]

4. Get a Mac

problem solved.

This is the DU member formerly known as Steve Ballmer's Pitsweat.

[kay1864]

5. Poke in the nose for you buster!

Why you, I oughta... :grr: