Hackers working hard to circumvent Microsoft's anti-piracy tech
Included in the Windows Update that Microsoft pushed out to XP users at the end of April is a piracy checker that double checks the authenticity of your XP installation. For some odd reason, the update didn't take place on my system until yesterday.
As can be seen from the way my McAfee-based personal firewall trapped the new software's attempt to phone home, the app's name is "Windows Genuine Advantage Notification." I allowed it since I know that my system is going to pass the test. That said, given that I'm running several instances of Windows in my VMware-based virtual machine setup, some of which are VMware-created clones of a single copy of Windows — I can't help but wonder if and when those VMs will get swept up in the WGA dragnet. So far, none of my VMs have had the update pushed them. But once again, we have another issue that puts Microsoft's frugal licensing policy (when it comes to the single-user usage of virtual machine technology) front and center.
