Many of these attacks were by worms such as SQL.Slammer and MS.Blaster both of which first appeared in 2003.
I can vouch for this. If you go online with an unpatched version of XP and no firewall installed you will have this virus within the hour guaranteed. It displays a window that tells you at random intervals that XP is closing down. And it will shut down, you have no control. The way to stop it is to patch your version of XP using Windows Update.
The article also mentions Windows Messenger (note this is different than MSN Messenger). This program is unlikely to be used by most users so I highly recommend disabling it. To learn how visit here http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/docs/messagepopup/
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