The Security Mentor

Korgo is the self-spreading piece of nastiness I mentioned recently. I was wrong about it having a keystroke recorder installed. Antivirus software maker F-Secure issued a correction recently along with a good explanation of how they made the mistake. In short the keystroke recorder is like an "aftermarket option" for the worm: the same gang that released the worm installs the keylogger after a PC gets infected and gets put under their control.

What difference does it make to a home user? None. Your computer winds up in the same state either way. Please install the patch from Microsoft! Just run Windows Update from your Start menu. If you don't want to do that, go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-011.mspx and download the right patch for your version of Windows.

Did people at work tell you that the patch caused problems? I've seen only one problem that's at all likely to show up on a home machine. Do you telecommute? Did your employer give you "VPN" software for telecommuting? Is it from Nortel Networks? Then you should read Microsoft's advice before installing the patch.

Your firewall should protect you and probably does but there are a lot of "if"s and "but"s involved. You need to install the patch.