The media seems to have walked away from the Downadup worm. Oh, sure, they still write stories … but today’s headlines fail to whip up any excitement. The key to it all? Major antivirus vendors continued to remain blasé after the column I wrote more than two weeks ago.

I honestly don’t re­mem­ber when so many anti­virus firms re­mained so calm during a media circus…

Take McAfee, for example. They finally changed their “breaking advisory” notice — yet as before, it makes no mention of Downadup:

“Microsoft has posted their Advance notification for the February 2009 bulletin release (releasing February 10). This release will include two ‘Critical’ updates (Internet Explorer and Microsoft Exchange). Updates for Microsoft SQL Server and Visio will be includef [sic] as well. All four bulletins carry a potential impact of remote code execution.”

“Potential impact”? What could be more potential than bazillions of infected zombie machines all waiting for their devilish master to command them? It almost defies description to see McAfee this calm.

Indeed, I honestly don’t remember a time in the last twenty years when so many antivirus firms remained so calm during a media circus. Color me stupified.

• By Fate is the Hunter, 5 February 2009 @ 11:44 pm

  jeez… If I hadn’t have read this site, I would have follenfor the “millions at risk” news story in the local paper (and on local radio three weeks later). My first notice of “conflicker” (agian… pop media) caused me to search again and again and again… with no results.

  some warnings are less urgent than others
  (love you work– been a fan of your false authority treatise for years)
• By xfmrhsd, 8 February 2009 @ 1:35 am

  Guess its pretty hard to whip up a frenzy about 20mil infected computers (? based on what expert?) when over 350mil jobs have been lost in about the same period….

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