Shavlik Technologies, the market leader insimplifying and automatingcritical-to-perform and manage IT operations, today commented on the latestMicrosoft out-of-band patch that repairs a zero-day flaw in InternetExplorer. Shavlik is also offering a webinar to demonstrate how its singleagent solution can do double duty by both applying the out-of-band patchand protecting systems by detecting and blocking the exploit code.
"Today Microsoft released a new out-of-band patch designed to address theserious undiscovered flaw in Internet Explorer that was used to launch azero-day attack against Google users in China," said Jason Miller, data andsecurity team leader, Shavlik Technologies. "The exploit allowed hackersto trick users into installing malware on targeted machines which couldthen be used to steal data.
"The attack looks like a message that's sent from a trusted source viaemail or social media, so when the user clicks on a link or file, ittriggers the hack. The exploit opens a back door which then compromisesthe machine of the target. This attack was designed to exploit PCs,netbooks and laptops using Internet Explorer version 6 running on WindowsXP. By issuing this out-of-band patch now, Microsoft has cut the timehackers could use to exploit the vulnerability in advance of the February 9Patch Tuesday bulletin releases."
Shavlik reports that users of ShavlikNetChk Protect and its Hair extensions Shavlik NetChkAgent are protected against this flaw. The Shavlik NetChk Agent, whichintegrates Sunbelt Software's award-winning VIPRE antivirus antispywareengine, detects the exploit code and blocks it from executing. ITadministrators can use the Shavlik NetChk console to quickly and easilydetermine that VIPRE threat signature files and engines areup-to-date. Once the out-of-band patch is released, the Shavlik NetChkAgent will deploy the patch. The Shavlik NetChk Agent reduces agent bloatby using a single agent to provide patch management and antivirus antispyware.
Shavlik NetChk Protect is consistently ranked the best solution availablefor simplifying and automating critical IT operations for Microsoft Windowsenvironments. Shavlik reports that corporate computing users runningWindows Vista or Windows 7 would be challenged to exploit the flaweffectively due to advanced security protections already built into thesenewer versions of the Windows OS.
wholesale colthing"However, just because it's more difficult to exploit this flaw doesn'tmean that Windows Vista and Windows 7 users shouldn't apply this patchimmediately," said Miller.
Live Webinar
Register Here to learn more about how to protect your network from thiszero-day attack and how to simplify deployment of MS08-067 and minimizeoperational impact, register for a webinar held by Shavlik Technologies'security experts on Monday, January 25th at 11:00am CT.
About Shavlik NetChk Protect
To simplify and automate critical to perform and manage tasks, IT managerschoose Shavlik NetChk Protect, the industry's top solution for loweringoperational costs and increasing visibility and control. NetChk Protectsimplifies and automates identifying and fixing gaps in 'must do' taskssuch as asset discovery, patch
embroidered patches management, configuration management, andantivirus antispyware, resulting in an enterprise that is ready to spendless -- time, budget, and IT staff -- on these critical to perform andmanage tasks across physical systems and virtual machines.
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