Trend Micro Virus Exploit and Linksys Router exploit
Most people expect their computer's antivirus to protect them against viruses. However, antivirus programs are computer software just like operating systems and have bugs in the software code. The latest security exploit affects trend micro's office scan antivirus client. Hackers can scan a machine with trend micro installed and can activate a denial of service or DoS attack against the target computer. The denial of service also can affect not only the trend micro software but any other chosen application on the victim's computer. Thankfully, Trend Micro has already released a patch to combat the vulnerability but the backlash remains. I think it shines the light on the need to harden security software's code. I believe this because one needs to count on antivirus to combat viruses in emergency situations. If the antivirus has an exploitable vulnerability, then the virus can potentially prevent the antivirus from adequately sanitizing the virus or malware. Finally, there may not be too much to worry about in this situation. What separates antivirus from a lot of other programs is that fact that they frequently update. Upon the release of the vulnerability, the patch to fix the exploit was released in less than a day and was automatically applied to the infected software. Therefore, most users will probably have protection against even the latest threats to an antivirus software's integrity.
This article goes along the line of the previous one except that its hardware rather than software that's affected. A significant percentage of these sites viewers have cable or dsl connections. Often these connections are shared and are plugged into a router which distributes the connection to multiple computers either wirelessly or wired. The incoming data passes through a NAT or network address translation firewall. Many users think that this is significant enough to protect against a trojan or worm. The latest vulnerability affects the WAG54G2 wireless router. The router has a security hole that will allow a remote hacker to gain root or administrative access to the routers internal operating system. The hacker can then view all of the services and programs running on the router and modify them as they please. For example, a hacker could install packet sniffing software on the router to sniff out credit card numbers etc. The hacker could also modify the router's code to permanently corrupt the internal firmware. I think this is also a wake up call to people who think a router is sufficient to protect their system. Routers are just really tiny computers that are vulnerable to viruses just as if a desktop is vulnerable to a Windows Virus. Unfortunately, as of today there are no fixes or an official patch to the router's bug. So, you may want to consider upgrading the router.