Windows XP software fix is ‘adequate’ - FBI

The FBI is reversing its advice for computer users trying to protect themselves against flaws in Windows XP.

The FBI is reversing its advice for computer users trying to protect themselves against flaws in Windows XP.

The bureau says applying the free fix from Microsoft Corp is adequate, after all.

Microsoft said last month that Windows XP suffers from serious problems that allow hackers to steal or destroy a victim's data files across the Internet or implant rogue computer software.

The glitches were unusually serious because they allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet.

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The problem also affects some copies of earlier Windows ME software, and in some rare cases can affect users of Windows 98.

Microsoft offered a free fix on its Web site the day the vulnerability was announced. But one day later, on December 21st, the FBI urged consumers and corporations to go beyond installing that fix and to disable the Windows "universal plug and play" features affected by the glitches.

However, even those warnings came under fire by experts as inaccurate. The steps outlined by the FBI failed to instruct consumers also to turn off in Windows an important, related feature - called a "discovery service" - that still left computers vulnerable.

AP