Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible

[Chris]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—In a rare discussion about the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.

"When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit," Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.

Offensive rootkits, which are used hide malware programs and maintain an undetectable presence on an infected machine, have become the weapon of choice for virus and spyware writers and, because they often use kernel hooks to avoid detection, Danseglio said IT administrators may never know if all traces of a rootkit have been successfully removed.

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[andsome]

Sounds ominous for us amateurs.

[-pops-]

Does this mean that Microsoft are abrogating responsibility for the security of THEIR operating systems?

If Gates and his cohorts hadn't designed, built and marketed a series of computer operating systems that weren't so prone to attacks by, lets face it, relatively simple bits of code then the whole situation we have now wouldn't exist.

The lack of a pro-active approach and a laissez faire attitude by MS towards security is increasingly noticable by them allowing other independents to find flaws in their systems and then only to appear to offer patches some time afterwards (during which, in a worst case, every computer might have been disabled) and not seeming to find flaws themselves.

We were told at the launch of the NT file system (used for all Windows post 9x and ME) that it was inherently more secure. This has proved to be an untruth and to the general user there doesn't seem to be any less attacks on their computers now than before - exactly the opposite, in fact with anti-malware software updates on a daily basis.

Instead of yet again tarting up an inherently flawed system (are MS are doing with the much vaunted Vista) wouldn't it be better to go back to the proverbial drawing board and devise a new operating sytem with better inbuilt security that didn't need daily updating and patching up?

Just a passing thought ;)

[Thos]

This is all very worrying to someone who finds it easy to worry about these things.

Thos.

[AlanHo]

I have my doubts that anyone will ever devise a totally foolproof operating system. There will always be "clever" scoundrels about who will invest everything into finding the tiniest of flaws and exploiting them for personal gain.

It is the story of mankind - no matter how tight the rules - people will eventually find ways round them.

Perhaps that is why life is so much fun.

[-pops-]

I have my doubts that anyone will ever devise a totally foolproof operating system. There will always be "clever" scoundrels about who will invest everything into finding the tiniest of flaws and exploiting them for personal gain.

It is the story of mankind - no matter how tight the rules - people will eventually find ways round them.

Perhaps that is why life is so much fun.

But my basic premise remains true - MS continue to tart up an old system and introduce it as something new and revolutionary. What they should be doing in my view is working on a system that is inherently more secure. This would mean working from a different base point (do away with the Registry for one thing).

Yes, there would be clever clogs who would make it their life's work to try and cripple whatever new system was introduced but, it could be made more difficult for them at the very least.

[nellie2]

I wouldnt say that recovery is impossible, more difficult and time consuming but not impossible. There are many home users out there who aren't IT professionals, who don't know how to save their data and don't have the technical know how to format and re-install. What are they supposed to do?

Pay someone to do it for them? Or just put up with an increasingly unusable machine?

I'm not about to give up just because MS say it's getting a bit too hard.

[Scarecrow Man]

I've heard of many things said to be impossible happening every day. This is just another Microsoft opt-out of thier own security flaws.

If they said it was possible, they would be asked what they are going to do about it, and if they say it's impossible they have no responsibility.