Microsoft blames users for Win 2000 hack attacks
Victims only have themselves to blame
By Paul Hales: Tuesday 10 September 2002, 13:42
MICROSOFT HAS UPDATED its warnings of security strikes affecting Windows 2000 servers and claims that, since there seem to be no specific vulnerabilities afflicting its OS products, the rash of attacks it identified could well be the fault of users.
Last week the Vole released its findings on a surge of hacks, which failed to help users at all.
Now, a new message posted on its security update site here implies that dumb users not using their passwords and anti virus software properly are responsible for their own woes...
"The attacks seek to take advantage of situations where standard precautions have not been taken," says Microsoft. It recommends that dim users eliminate "blank or weak administrator passwords", disable the guest account, run antivirus software with up-to-date virus signature definitions and use firewalls to protect internal servers, including domain controllers. Users should also stay up to date with the various security patches it releases very regularly, it says.
Microsoft says that the only systems reported to have been affected by this attack have been systems that are running Microsoft Windows 2000 Server. Other operating systems are subject to different attacks, of course.
