Black Ice : leave it before it lets you down !
For the last three years I had trusted the Black Ice firewall made by ISS
(Internet Security Services) . Now I know that BlackIce has a flaw which
allowed the Witty worm to attack it. BlackIce didn't issue any warning to his
customers, but as I had read about the attack on the net, I went and tried to
download the patch ISS had issued on the 26th March. I did this on the 2nd
April and was answered: no patch because your licence has expired on the
31st March.
It was observed to ISS that this was not the issue : the issue was that ISS
had sold a flawed product; therefore any customer who had paid good money
for it should have received the patch (In fact, about 12.000 computers were
ruined as a consequence).
Now I read on ZD Network News of the 5th April: ” Greg Adams, vice
president of product management for ISS, told ZDNet UK that it is not
corporate policy to block any ISS customers from installing a security
patch: "If somebody called in and they were denied the patch that then that
was our mistake. But that is not the general policy," he said.”
Not true. Today I have just tried again to download the patch : it was still
refused..
As somebody said, the only solution is to find another product, hopefully sold
by more responsible people. This is what I did – and hope most of ISS
customers will eventually do.