Microsoft WGA server down! Results in un-genuine vista copies.

Beginning August 24th some copies of Microsoft's Windows Vista were flagged as counterfeit and re-validation was required only to be directed to contact Microsoft support during a business day! The problem starts when you try to run an update from Microsoft.

http://digg.com/microsoft/Microsoft_...e_vista_copies

Validation issues - Microsoft is having WGA server problems.

http://forums.microsoft.com/genuine/...&tf=0&pageid=0

Oh joy!

Validation Issue Fix

http://blogs.msdn.com/wga/archive/20...issue-fix.aspx

Further details here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/25...ga_server.html

Monday morning press:

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/59041.html

More:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&nc...993311&topic=t

Yeah - this was pretty bad. I personally am all for Microsoft verifying that copies of Windows, and other MS products, are valid as there are "conservative" estimates stating that 30% of all copies of Windows worldwide are illegal - and some estimates put that at 60%. That would be nearly 500 million copies! Even if only 10%, that would still be near 100 million!

The problem is that a great many of the users of these illegal copies fail to keep their systems patched and updated for fear of being detected. Consequently, there are 10s of millions (100s of millions??) of unpatched vulnerable Windows PCs out there. Millions are already compromised and millions more are ready targets for badguys to turn into zombie PCs and made a part of malware distributing botnets.

So I really do applaud Microsoft for trying to stop piracy because it is a major security threat against the rest of us. But they have got to do a better job to make sure innocent, legitimate, licensed users of their products are not adversely impacted by events under Microsoft control.