Computerworld reports that this month's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) has scrubbed the Alureon rootkit from over 360,000 Windows PCs since its May 11 release
The free MSRT is updated each month as part of Microsoft's monthly Patch Tuesday, and pushed to users via the same Windows Update mechanism used to serve up security fixes.Microsoft smacks patch-blocking rootkit second time
April's edition of MSRT, which was released April 13, also included Alureon sniffing skills. Last month, MSRT removed the rootkit from more than 260,000 Windows systems.
Although the Alureon rootkit is no malware newcomer -- antivirus company Symantec identified it in October 2008 -- it first made news last February when Microsoft confirmed that the rootkit caused infected PCs to crash when users applied a patch the company issued that month.
