Re: Every incident is an opportunity (was Re: Hackers hit key Internet traffic computers)

[Dave Pooser <dave.nanog () alfordmedia com>]

> He was both right and wrong -- patches do break a lot of stuff.  He was
> facing two problems: the probability of being off the air because of an
> attack versus the probability of being off the air because of bad
> interactions between patches and applications.  Which is a bigger risk?

That's an argument for an organizational test environment and testing
patches before deployment, no? Not an argument against patching. That said,
I would LOVE to see MS ship a monthly/quarterly unified updater that's a
one-step way to bring fresh systems up to date without slipstreaming the
install CD. Then press a zillion of 'em and put them everywhere you can find
an AOL CD, for all those folks on dial-up who see a 200MB download and curl
up in the fetal position and whimper.

> It's not an easy question to answer.  One scenario that scares me is
> what happens if the April Patch Tuesday takes out, say, TurboTax, just
> as Americans are getting ready to file their tax returns.

<cynic mode>
No need to worry about that until MS TaxForm starts shipping.
</cynic mode>
-- 
Dave Pooser, ACSA
Manager of Information Services
Alford Media http://www.alfordmedia.com