Manip,

I totally agree with you. I'm somewhat protected since I'm sitting behind NAT. I mean, a hospital network that is open to the internet? Sounds like a network admin needs a little security training... there's no reason to have the port(s) open that these viruses (virii?) are using.

As far as applying patches, I can see the reasoning why this may not be set up to be automatic, as that's a huge drain on resources and such - you want it to be downloaded to a central local server and have it distributed that way.

Regardless, the virus needs an open port that quite honestly shouldn't be open to the internet.

-Chuck