From the always excellent WindowsSecrets newsletter (free version available.)
experts predicts that a serious worm attack will blaze across the
Internet soon. This is due to a security hole that Microsoft announced
on Oct. 11.
The remedy is a patch called MS05-051. It’s one of 8 the Redmond
company released on its regular Patch Tuesday schedule. All of these
patches may be significant to you. But it’s particularly important that
Windows XP users upgrade to Service Pack 2 (if you already haven’t) and
that users of Windows 2000, XP, and other versions install MS05-051 to
protect against the oncoming malware.
Start/All Programs/Windows Update. Do it now. WindowsSecrets is not given to false announcements.
By the way, one of the best way to avoid attacks in Windows is to use
Internet Explorer as little as possible. It has security holes and it
is frequently targetted. I use Firefox and Opera instead. They are more
secure and less attacked.
Mac users: Feel free to post your usual ‘why don’t you just switch to a Mac’ thoughts!.