Microsoft was quick to respond to a blog on the F-Secure site, this past weekend. In the blog, posted by Mikko Hypponen of F-Secure, there is a new virus being seen in the wild which is targeted at the Microsoft MSH (codenamed Monad) command shell scripting facility. Microsoft has only recently identified Monad as not shipping with Vista, which is what caused the ‘First reported virus for Vista’ report in the first place.

MSH is a command-line shell tool that lets IT administrators manage a system. It is similar to the command shell in Unix, Linux and OS X.

A first beta of the technology was released in June. MSH is not part of the Vista beta that was launched two weeks ago.

F-Secure pointed to a proof-of-concept virus in a blog posting on its website which it said was developed by an Austrian virus writer. It has named the virus ‘Danom’, which is ‘Monad’ backwards.

I regard this not as a failure by F-Secure to get the story straight, but as proof that Microsoft needs to loosen up on their information and timeline. Someone needs to convince Microsoft that letting other people know what’s going on can be helpful, since ideas don’t come from inside the corporation only.

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