What took down CNN & ABC?

18th August 2005

Hardly a day goes by without someone, somewhere, finding yet another irritating flaw, or “bug” in Microsoft Windows. Usually these bugs are minor, and many users would never even notice them. In some cases though, these flaws are newsworthy, like yesterdays Zotob virus that took down CNN and ABC, and affected thousands of computers around the world.

Contrary to popular belief, Microsoft really is trying to make a good product and one of the greatest things they did was to build a Windows update feature right into the first version of Windows 98, and it’s gone into all subsequent Windows releases. If ABC and CNN had done their Windows Updates, there would have been no crisis. Microsoft fixed that flaw on April 9th 2005, and the virus hit on August 17th.

Ever since Windows 98, users can log in to the Microsoft Update website, and pick and choose what updates they would like to download and install for FREE. There are a large number of updates available for your computer, no matter how new it is. I guarantee it.

Companies big and small continue to ignore the most common sense approach to protecting their most valuable asset. That is, to update their Windows and Antivirus on a regular basis!

To get your Windows updates, in Windows XP, just go to Start – All programs – Windows Update - and follow the instructions there. Even if your computer is set to get updates automatically, you STILL need to got there and do this. Microsoft has a new “validation” feature that will not update automatically, so go do it now.

After the update, you may be prompted to reboot. Once you do that, you’ll have the latest updates available for your version of Windows and you’ll be protected. It’s not that hard.

After you run your updates, be sure your computer is set to get future updates automatically too. Right click on My Computer and go to “Automatic Updates” and select the appropriate option and time for you to get the updates.

Updating your critical Windows files may not make everything work perfectly, but it certainly will go a long way towards making your Windows installation as safe and secure as it can be, and keep you from becoming another statistic.