Security experts warn of possible worm hitting Vista

by admin September 10, 2009 at 4:08 pm

A group of top security analysts and researchers say the latest Windows security hole, for which there is no patch, leaves hundreds of millions of Windows Vista PCs wide open for infection by a Conficker-like Internet worm.

Security experts didn’t express much concern about Conficker when it first began to spread sporadically last fall, taking advantage of a similar unpatched vulnerability in Windows XP computers.

At its peak, Conficker searched out and infected some 10 million Windows XP machines worldwide. Conficker continues to spread on its own and currently infects about 5 million Windows XP computers.

This time around, the debate in security circles about how damaging this Vista flaw could turn out to be is heating up much quicker. “The likelihood of hackers launching a worm is great,” says Shavlik researcher Jason Miller. “Any flaw that can be spread without user interaction is a gold mine.”

Read more: usatoday.com