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Story URL: http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39118978,00.htm

Microsoft security CDs - useful to more than a third of you
Not such a bad idea - or is it?

By Tony Hallett

Published: Monday 08 March 2004

A move to receiving software updates from Microsoft by CD-ROM has been given significant support by silicon.com readers.

In a poll running from 22 February until this morning, 38 per cent of respondents said 'yes, definitely' to the question 'would a quarterly security CD from Microsoft help your business?'

The question was posed after moves from the software giant following the MSBlast virus and the realisation that many users - particularly small businesses and households - aren't patching regularly because they only have dial-up connections via which to download the necessary fixes.

Of the remaining 62 per cent, only 14 per cent answered 'no' to our question and 6 per cent were 'not sure' about such physical distribution.

Giving some indication of Microsoft's dominance on the desktop and increasing presence on servers - or perhaps the likelihood of non-Microsoft users giving their time to such a finger-in-the-air question - 15 per cent said they would 'stick with other software'.

The remaining 27 per cent seem content working completely online, replying 'I'll stick with downloading fixes'.

In recent reports, analysts told silicon.com that Microsoft, in common with a number of prominent vendors, tends to assume more people have broadband connections than is actually the case.

Others have said the time it takes to put together such a CD after vulnerabilities are found is too long, rendering such an approach useless for some threats.

To take part in silicon.com's latest poll - about a wholly unrelated subject - click here.