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I hate to be the one to say this, but we
need to stop being so naive.
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technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and
commentaries, continuously available online since
1983
T e c h n o f i l e
Windows users who just don't get it are to blame for
the virus mess
August 24, 2003
By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2003, The Post-Standard
Whatís going on here?
Imagine trying to explain Earthlings to
someone from another planet.
On Earth, there are Good Guys and there
are Bad Guys. Bad Guys burn down buildings and create
computer viruses. Earthlings never really know why the Bad
Guys do this. Maybe it's because they need a life, as
in "Get a life!" Maybe it's because they are
bored or jaded. Or maybe because they are simply evil.
Good Guys are all around us. They are
firefighters who run into burning buildings and teachers
who stay after class day after day to grade papers and keep
up with their own instruction. They're police offers
who risk their lives to protect the rest of us. They're
Mom and Pop, who worked double shifts and extra jobs to
make sure we got an education.
Good Guys are easy to understand.
It's the Bad Guys who have us mystified. I suspect that
most of us were taught the wrong thing when we were kids.
Not wanting to hurt our young and tender sensitivities, our
teachers described history the wrong way. There were no Bad
Guys in the way history was taught to us. There were just
events.
World War 1 happened because the royalty
was aloof. World War 2 happened because Germany wanted to
expand. The Korean War happened because nobody really
understood the Chinese. The list goes on and on. There were
no Bad Guys.
Before long, somewhere in America
somebody's kid is going to come home from school and
explain that the World Trade Towers were attacked because
we didn't understand the problems of the oppressed and
the poor.
No Bad Guys. Just events. Just blips in
the time line of history.
Children who are "protected"
in this way learn only a sanitized version of history.
They're shielded from ideas that might frighten them or
make them think. They grow up in a world that does not
match reality. They become adults who lack balance.
Balance is much more important than we
might assume. There is, in our world, light and dark, cold
and hot, high and low, good and evil. Good and bad. But
many of us are clueless.
Get this. Make a note. Engrave it on
your mind so it will never go away:
Bad Guys are out to cause you harm. If
you remain clueless you will never get the point. The
latest worldwide computer virus attacks make that clear.
Clueless people let the latest virus get into their
computers, and that allowed it to spread to other
computers.
Blaming the Bad Guys is like leaving
your doors unlocked and blaming the burglars when someone
steals your jewels. Most computer users left their PCs
unprotected, even though there was an easy, free and simple
way to protect their computers. Microsoft, maker of
Windows, warned us. The government even warned us. Web
sites that specialize in computer topics warned us.
Guys like me warned anyone who would
listen. I've even worn out my welcome in some places.
When I'm asked to come and talk to a local group, I
always insist on talking first about security and computer
safety before moving on to the topic of the day. That's
how strongly I feel about this.
A lot of good it does. The next virus
will do the same thing. And so will the one after that, as
long as we remain unconcerned and unprepared.
What has to happen before we wake up? A
virus can easily invade an unprotected Windows PC and use
it as the staging ground for an attack on other computers.
If thousands of infected Windows PCs do this at the same
time, they could bring down big Internet sites one after
the other. They could shut down emergency services in any
part of the country or even knock government sites
offline.
This isn't kid stuff. It's what
Bad Guys are doing. We need to do something, too. We need
to make sure our computers are protected -- by firewalls,
antivirus software and strict controls over e-mail
attachments -- and we need to change our attitudes.
I hate to be the one to say this, but we
need to stop being so naive. Windows is a security
nightmare and it practically invites viruses in. But most
people use Windows, even though there are two families of
computers that are much safer -- Apple's Macintosh and
the many types of Linux computers. Microsoft has a grip on
the PC market that even the government can't shake
loose, and so, like the family that's stuck with an
unwanted brother-in-law, we're stuck with
Microsoft's Windows and its many frailties.
So we have to deal with it. If you use
Windows, make sure you have a firewall. Get good antivirus
software. Teach everyone in the family that they aren't
allowed to open attachments that they did not ask for in
the first place.
Wouldn't that make a difference? The
Bad Guys win when the rest of us pretend nothing is wrong.
But we all know -- or ought to know -- that something is
terribly wrong with computer security. Unless we change our
attitudes, we're simply inviting our own
destruction.
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