Computerworld News reports “New Sober worm moving fast, security company warns. W32.Sober-K-mm, a new variant of the Sober worm, is a mass-mailer that today began attacking computers in Europe and in the United States.”
Meanwhile, OSNews reports that Gartner takes Microsoft to task. “Microsoft should be concentrating on securing Windows instead of trying to challenge security software companies, according to research firm Gartner.”
“Gartner’s MacDonald also rapped Microsoft’s decision to create an updated version of Internet Explorer (7.0) for Windows XP only, hinting that motive for the decision could be to push corporate customers into upgrade their systems from Windows 2000.”
If that’s true, I think it is a risky move. By announcing IE 7.0, supposedly in beta this summer, Microsoft is admitting that their current offerings are insufficient and that patching will not solve the problem. It’s February. Any CIO that wants to be employed this fall ought to be looking at alternatives today: FireFox, Opera, Safari. The option to “upgrade” to Windows XP, a major change management move involving an OS upgrade followed by innumerable patches, is a huge obstacle compared to downloading another browser and installing it.