Windows Genuine Advantage: Here Come the Lawsuits

Windows Genuine Advantage... you know, what exactly is the "advantage" we're talking about here? How does Microsoft stopping alleged software piracy equate to an advantage for the consumer? I'm baffled.

Apparently the real advantage has been for two groups: Hackers and lawyers.

Yesterday it was announced that a new worm called Cuebot-K was masquerading as a WGA notification. The idea is to trick users into thinking it's an official Microsoft warning and convinces him to click on it, installing the Cuebot worm. The worm then disables the Windows Firewall and opens a backdoor, turning your PC into a minion of evil.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has now been sued over WGA, with the suit accusing Microsoft of masquerading WGA as a critical security update when it is, in fact, nothing of the sort. The suit alleges that WGA is actually a form of spyware that collects personally identifiable information.

As always, my advice is to make sure your antivirus software is up to date and never click on a random pop-up you receive, even if it looks legitimate.