French fighter planes grounded by computer virus

http://www.defenceaviation.com/2009/02/french-fighter-planes-grounded-by.html

Microsoft had warned that the "Conficker" virus, transmitted through Windows, was attacking computer systems in October last year, but according to reports the French military ignored the warning and failed to install the necessary security measures.


I don't get even some of the world's defence forces depend on Microsoft why can't they just switch to Linux???

 

Because their love microsoft and window

 

LOL, they used Microsoft....it figures.

 

Simple protection ignored at such high level of application?

This is the height of carelessness. Governments spend billions of dollars on hardwares but not even peanuts for softwares....i guess

Regards,

RightMan

 

Well... they are French, Yes they need the Hardwares, but why spend money on softwares when there are Croissants to be brought??? and pain au chocolat?!

 

Cause Linux doesn't play the same games.

 

Thanks for the article!

Many major corporations and government entities use Microsoft for two very important reasons.

#1) Microsoft has dedicated 24/7 support.

#2) It's easier and cheaper to find programmers, database administrators, network admins, etc for Microsoft products than it is for Linux.

 

You can get 24/7 support for Linux, also. There are lots of major corporations that do this.

That's debatable. I'm not sure it's true. People look at ads for asp.net programmers and say it's cheaper than a Unix C coder as proof, for example, but they are not the same thing.

 

This is true now, however back a few years ago this wasn't the case. It was much harder to get Linux support than Microsoft support. Now that Linux has better support and is gaining more popularity in the corporate world, I expect to see more corporations making the switch.

I just meant in the sense that there are far more Microsoft professionals than Linux. According to Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/certified.mspx

there are 2,361,810 people with MCP (Microsoft Certified Professionals) certifications worldwide. I couldn't find any information for Linux professionals with similar certifications, but I would assume there are far less.



Personally I think both Microsoft and Linux can be used in any corporate environment and be successful. As with any software, it's essential that you apply the most frequent updates, patches, and security fixes. In my experience this is something that many corporations/government entities overlook or ignore.

 

This is such old news.

I believe if the French had just kept themselves up-to-date this would have had never happened.

Moral of the story:
Install updates, whether your on windows or linux.

 

Yes, you can't blame Microsoft or Windows if the company didn't scan with an up to date anti-virus beforehand or something like this.

 

if only they check it carefully then this won't happen....things like this should not be ignored...

 

The French should shell out the extra bucks and get a good anti-virus software.

 

Two of the world's biggest and well equipped armed forces couldn't protect their systems.

Just imagine if some terrorist somehow manage to hack or attack with virus programmed to do nasty things and take control of systems things could be more devastating.

 

Everyone know that initiate cost on Linux is cheaper than Microsoft Windows but Support / Maintainance cost on Linux is more Far beyond Windows. Today, industrial is mostly go on Windows. Only, academic ,computer mania, old era computer man, server tasks use Linux. Linux is also opensource that attract hacker to hack system that is very harmful and require some genius administrators to maintain security for Linux system that even more cost than Windows.

Now - Windows rules.

 

omg

The lack of interest on security updates its shameful.