New Microsoft Windows Vista Patch Spurs the Gimmiv Worm to Thrive

Immediately after Microsoft released a new Emergency Windows Vista Security Patch on October 23, there was a surge in attacks on computers by the Gimmiv Worm. The Gimmiv Worm is designed to steal passwords and send them back to the attacker. Though most firewalls will block the transmission of these passwords, networks and individual computers that are not protected by a firewall are at serious risk if they have not applied the new Emergency Windows Vista Security Patch.

The reason for the surge in the number of instances of the Gimmiv Worm is that Microsoft, in issueing the Emergency Patch, has alerted hackers of the seriousness of the bug in Windows Vista that the worm exploits. A worm is a self-replicating computer program that uses a network to send itself out to other computers accessible from the infected computer.

Users should take several pieces of knowledge from this information:

1) Apply and security patches to your Windows Vista system as soon as they are released. You can automate this process by enabling the automatic update option on Windows Update. Instructions for this can be found here.

2) Use a firewall, whether it be a hardware firewall (typically found in routers, etc.), or a software firewall (one is included with Windows Vista. Instructions for enabling it can be found here.). This will protect your Windows Vista system from transmitting many instances of data stolen by a computer worm, such as the Gimmiv Worm, or any other malicious software on your computer.

The bottom line is that ultimately, the security of your computer or even your home network is your responsibility. There isn't a single operating system in existence that is "unhackable." The burden of maintaining a personal computer system resides in the owners hands. With a little more research, you can gain a fairly thorough understanding of what you need to protect your system against and how to go about doing it. There are many tech blogs out there, as well as information sites that can help you with this seemingly daunting task. When you are finished, not only will you have a much more secure computer system, but you will have the confidence that you have some idea what is going on inside your computer, at least enough to attempt to address arising issues on your own simply using Google.

Good luck, and be safe!