Imagine for a moment that you accidentally invited Osama bin Laden into your bedroom and that, once safely ensconced in your boudoir, bin Laden immediately opened your bedroom window and let dozens of other terrorists into your house. Clearly this would be both a frightening and newsworthy event. But how, exactly, would the news media cover this?
One way would be to focus on the new “threat vector.” To my knowledge, there has never been a case where terrorists have broken into American homes through the bedroom window. So, clearly, the 24-hour news channels would have a field day with this story, spending days warning you about the potential danger lurking in your bedroom and inviting pundits from Pella and Andersen windows to talk about what anti-terrorist protections are built into current bedroom window technologies.
The less sexy approach – and the approach that I favor – is to simply ignore the “your bedroom window may be a conduit for terrorists” story and instead focus on the real issue: YOU SHOULDN’T LET OSAMA BIN LADEN INTO YOUR BEDROOM IN THE FIRST PLACE! The fact that he opened your bedroom window for other terrorists to enter is IRRELEVANT.
What does this have to do with technology? Well, last week the media reported that a virus/Trojan horse was targeting Windows Update, giving the false impression that Windows Update [your “bedroom window” in my convoluted analogy] is no longer safe. That’s complete and utter hogwash. If you read the media reports closely you’ll discover that
1. Some idiots double-clicked on a Trojan-infected email attachment and infected their computers with a virus [“invited bin Laden into their bedrooms”]. If these idiots had had up-to-date antivirus programs, or if they had practiced “safe surf” and not clicked on unsolicited email attachments in the first place, their computers would have been fine and there wouldn’t have been a story. But they’re idots.
2. The newly-installed Trojan horse connected to the Internet and downloaded more bad stuff onto the idiots’ computers [“opened the bedroom windows to let in more terrorists”]. This sounds scary but is actually quite commonplace – once an idiot’s computer is infected with a virus or Trojan horse, it is not uncommon for that virus or Trojan horse to try to download and install more malware onto that idot’s computer.
What is abnormal about this particular Trojan horse, however, is how the Trojan connected to the Internet to download and install its extra payload. Instead of using the idiot’s front door [the web browser or email program], the Trojan opened the bedroom window [the Background Intelligent Transfer Service]. The “scary” part – and note that the word “scary” is in quotes – is that the Background Intelligent Transfer Service is also used by Microsoft Windows Update.
OH NOES! IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!
Or not. Look, just as your bedroom window can be used for both good [letting in air and light] and bad [letting in bin Laden’s buddies], so can the Background Intelligent Transfer Service. It can be used by Microsoft to connect to Microsoft’s servers to download critical updates, or it can be used by a Trojan horse to connect to some criminal’s server and let in all sorts of nastyware. But – and this is the key point – as long as your computer isn’t infected by a Trojan horse in the first place, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. Just as you don’t have to fear your bedroom window, you don’t have to fear Windows Update or the Background Intelligent Transfer Service it uses. No Trojan, no worries.
And, unfortunately for the tech media, no story either. Windows Update is still safe.
As for your bedroom window, well …
