Window Update Breaks Zone Alarm

Flaming your firewall

Today after automatically downloading and installing a Windows networking update, KB951748, thousands of XP users found they no longer had access to the internet. Zone Alarm, a popular 3rd party firewall, interpreting the update as an attack declared internet access denied.

So what lesson have we learned? While IT consulting and, even now, I never allowed Windows to automatically update via the normal consumer windows process. Only if pushing out updates via SMS (Systems Management Server) or alike, would I allow any type of automation.

This exact situation has burned me so many times. You arrive at the office or get the 6AM call from your site admin who is screaming ‘the internet is down no one has access, I checked 5 different computers’. So now you can’t even access the systems remotely to troubleshoot. You call the ISP and they say ‘we can ping the router’ and now before you have even had your coffee, your incompetent.

Now, several hours later, you arrive at the office, sleep deprived and incompetent, surrounded by dirty looks. They have all missed a deadline, lost their bonus and, it’s now your fault because you are the one who is there to fix it.