HUA HIN, Thailand - A highly infectious computer worm has been wreaking havoc
across corporate networks over the past week. The net nasty known as Downadup
or Conficker has been spreading quickly through unpatched computers and
attacking security holes in Microsoft Windows. According to Internet security
experts at F-Secure, a Finland-based antivirus company, more than 10 million
machines have already been infected by the worm.
Once a computer has been infected the worm can download and install additional
malware that can do anything from stealing passwords to opening the system to
remote control. The worm can spread in three different ways: by exploiting a
vulnerability
(MS08-067) in the Windows Server service and the file services.exe - an
essential part of the operating system; attempting to crack administrator
passwords and spread through shared folders on local area networks; and through
being transmitted via removable drives and USB devices that are activated by
the autorun feature.
Home computers are usually a lower risk as they are protected by personal
firewalls and are often up to date with their security patches. Corporate
machines on the other hand often run older unpatched versions of Windows and
have more network shared accessibility, which makes them a bigger target.
A Microsoft patch
released in
October last year will help protect against network infections spreading on
some systems. That said, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team
(US-CERT) has since issued a bulletin claiming that Microsoft's original patch
does not cover all versions of Windows, specifically 2000, XP and Server 2003.
Further disabling of the autorun feature
is also required for that extra level
of security.
Industry
Apple's quarterly earnings report provided a positive point to Wall Street
traders and analysts as, despite the current economic climate, the company made
better than expected profit and record revenue. Sales, boosted largely by the
iPod, in the first fiscal quarter climbed 6% to US$10.17 billion while profits
increased to $1.61 billion, or $1.78 a share, beating the average analyst
estimate of $1.39. The company moved nearly 23 million units during the
quarter.
The economic slump has hurt Mac sales, however they grew 9% annually. Growth
in iPod sales outside the US also made up for the slight deficit. During 2008,
Apple also sold 13.7 million iPhones, beating the company's goal of selling 10
million units during the year. The promising figures took the heat off the
rumors over the health of iconic chief executive Steve Jobs. Chief of finance
Peter Oppenheimer stated that Jobs is still in charge. "Steve is the CEO of
Apple and intends to be involved in major strategic decisions," he said.
IBM also released fourth-quarter earnings. For the full 2008 fiscal year they
reported record revenues of $103.6 billion and a record earnings per share of
$8.93. The company expects to improve on this in 2009 with a 3% increase.
Microsoft's Q4 results were not as encouraging, with revenue up only 2% to
$16.63 billion and net income falling 11% to $4.17 billion. Revenue fell short
of Wall Street analyst's predictions of $17.1 billion. The company announced
that it will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in research and development, marketing,
sales, finance, legal, human resources and information technology over the next
18 months, including 1,400 jobs this week.
Google had a brighter week, reporting fourth-quarter revenue that exceeded
expectations at $5.70 billion, an increase of 18% over the same quarter last
year. Net income tumbled to $382 million from $1.62 billion a year earlier.
Internet
A highly anticipated new service from Google could be another step towards
cloud computing and away from desktop-based data storage. Gdrive, arriving
later this year, will offer an online data storage service that may even go as
far as providing a web-based operating system. The service will go into direct
competition with Microsoft, which is already offering something similar called
SkyDrive with 25 gigabytes of free online storage.
Microsoft's Live Mesh service is a little smarter in that it will keep files on
the desktop and in the cloud seamlessly synchronized. Gdrive will do the same
with more storage space for less, but it can only really be an effective tool
if Google can offer the same amount of space as you can get on a hard disk.
There are also privacy issues to contend with - how many people will be
comfortable letting Google look into their private data.
Hardware
There is no escaping the global economic slowdown and this is especially true
for technology companies. The world's largest chip maker, Intel, has announced
a number of price cuts as the company comes to terms with slowing demand. Up to
40% has been slashed from some of its higher powered quad core processors.
which are used in a wide range of mobile and desktop PCs.
The price Core 2 Quad Q9650 chip has fallen from $530 in December to $316 this
week. The move could be in response to a recent launch of sub-$300 Phenom II
quad core CPUs from rivals AMD. Both Intel and AMD dropped prices across a
range of processors so we are likely to see a fall in PC prices as components
become cheaper.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2009 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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Industry
