That’s Gotta Hurt

The first proof of concept virus has been written for Microsoft’s next generation operating system, Windows Vista (formerly code-named Longhorn). The first beta version was released in July, and less than a week later, an Austrian hacker had already listed instructions on a hacker group website on how to write a virus for the new command line shell that is included in Windows Vista. The recommendation of security experts is to make the shell available only as an installable option, and not include it by default to make it less attractive to virus writers. It is a power user feature, so this could be a feasible option to help reduce the spread of viruses based on this shell.Evidently, despite Microsoft’s claims that they are putting many more resources into security, they aren’t doing a good enough job.