There was an interesting article posted on the AutoPatcher.com Blog today that talks about the history and future of AutoPatcher.  They talk about the Blaster worm which spread like wildfire across the Internet and rendered many computers unusable until the infection was removed.  Here is a short excerpt from the AutoPatcher.com Blog:

We will be working on a web-oriented solution which we hope will give use two great benefits: easier and more efficient upgrades and easier “all-in-one” creation. Since I’m in the middle of exams, I will probably start coding in about a week from today. Although we can’t really provide an estimate on when the next AutoPatcher will be available, we will do our best to have everything ready (and above all Microsoft-free) just in time for an October release.

One of my experiences with the Blaster worm:

I remember the days of the Blaster worm well since I had to clean many computers infected with it (as well as some similar ones).  I remember one instance very well.  At the time some of the colleges around here were huge breeding grounds for computer viruses upon the arrival of new students.  My girlfriend (at that time) needed to have Windows XP reloaded on her computer.  I think it was because it was infected with the Blaster worm but I can’t remember for sure.  I grabbed the Windows XP SP1 CD, reformatted the hard drive, and reinstalled Windows.  Installing Windows XP SP2, all of the latest security updates, and Anti-Virus software were my top priorities after installing Windows.  However, I learned a lesson the hard way that day.  As those of you in the IT industry know Windows XP SP1 didn’t include the built-in firewall.  That important security feature came as part of the SP2 release.  The tiny problem was that I had left the network cable plugged into the computer when reinstalling Windows on a network with thousands of laptops owned by college kids.  Needless to say, a bunch of these computers didn’t have the latest security updates or current Anti-Virus programs installed which resulted in a bunch of computers on the network becoming infected.  Since I had the network cable plugged-in it didn’t take long for the fresh install of Windows XP SP1 to get infected with the Blaster worm even though I started installing SP2 almost immediately after reinstalling Windows.  To make a short story longer, I ended up reformatting the computer and reinstalling Windows XP again.  This time I was sure to unplug the network cable and install SP2 before plugging it back into the network.  That day I learned an important lesson:  install the latest security updates before connecting the computer to a network, especially one that you don’t manage yourself.  This is where I think AutoPatcher comes in really handy.  It allows you to get almost all of the latest security updates installed before connecting to the Internet.  Of course, now I usually slipstream SP2 into the Windows XP CD but AutoPatcher is still very useful because there have been a lot of updates released since SP2 came out. 

Microsoft has created a security portal on their website with some excellent resources on the latest online threats.  It is called the Microsoft Malware Protection Center and the initial release contains:

• Four “Top 10″ lists:
  • Desktop Threats
  • MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool) Detections
  • Most Active Email Threats
  • Adware/Spyware
• An encyclopedia of malware and unwanted software
• Links to more tools & resources
• Sample submission page:  A place to send the team files, suspected to contain malware, to be analyzed
• Definition updates for Windows Defender as well as Forefront Client Security

I originally found out about the new portal from the Spyware Sucks blog.  They kept referring to it as the MLPC (which probably goes back to the Live branding confusion saga).
NOTE:  They changed MLPC to MMPC after I wrote this blog post.

There is also some good information on the Anti-Malware Engineering Team blog about version 1 of the portal going live.  They mentioned that this release was just a beginning and asked for people to send feedback about the portal to mpcfb@microsoft.com.