Zobot was one of the fastest exploits of a microsoft hole yet created.  IN less than a week's time, these infantile idiots, Farid Essebar of Morocco, and Atilla Ekici of Turkey released what essential was an aggravation (the worm did not destroy data, just crashed servers).  I am glad these juvenile deliquents were grabbed so fast as these clowns must be stopped before someone tries to outdo them in the future and release a deadly worm just as fast.

But I have to wonder about the so called Experts as well:

But experts said the damage probably wouldn't be substantial because most companies made the necessary software fixes quickly.

I dont know about these experts, but in our organization, with over 100 servers that need patches, even if we jumped right on them when a patch is released, it would still take 4 days to complete the patching.  And we dont like to do that. 

We have been burned in the past with bad patches from Microsoft breaking the system or other appications, so we like to test the patch for at least 2 weeks on Test boxes and redundant boxes to make sure we do not detect any ill effects.  We did not have that luxury this time because of the release of the worm, but it still took us a week and 1/2 to get all the boxes patched. And we crossed our fingers the whole time hoping and praying that we were not doing more harm than good.

Dont get me wrong, we do have firewalls, and very few of our systems are even exposed to the internet (in a DMZ).  But in an organization of 11k users, there are a lot of laptops, and they can be used to circumvent those firewalls.  It has already happened once (but we were patched for that worm, just the user was not).

It is unrelealistic to think that patching can be done over night and the bug makers know this.  I wish I had more confidence in Microsoft and its patches, but I have been burned too many times in the past by a patch (only to have it re-released in 2-4 weeks).

These juvenile deliquents should be made to pay with both complete revocation of any computer use, and a fine so onerous that they never see themeslves debt free.  FOr only making it a harsh and painful penalty will the other miscreants out there think twice before getting their jollies.