Just 12 minutes, and you're owned

TechBlog notes that ZDNet has a wake-up call for anyone about to connect an unpatched Windows-based PC to the Internet. According to Sophos, a security firm, a virgin Windows XP machine has a 50 percent chance of being compromised within 12 minutes of going online. Keep this in mind if you've formatted your hard drive for that fresh, clean-install feeling and are planning to link up to the Net to start pulling down patches, updates and drivers. There are viruses and other exploits that scan the Internet looking for unpatched Windows systems. The Blaster worm is a good example -- it can infect a PC with the original version of Windows XP in seconds. The best approach is to download drivers and patches in advance and burn them to a CD before formatting your machine's hard drive. For example, you can get Windows XP Service Pack 2 here, though be aware the downloadable version is almost 300 megabytes. Another approach is to make sure you have some kind of hardware or software firewall in place. The one built in to Windows XP will do, just make sure it's turned on before you connect to the Net -- in the original version of XP, it's turned off by default. Then, the very first place you'd go online would be Windows Update -- and download all the available security patches, including SP2, before going to any other sites.

I would also install a good virus protection program before going online as well.