On Friday, August 22, 2003, at 05:20 PM, Max Blanco wrote:

I didn't see your letter in today's online version of the G+M.

Doesn't look like I made the cut. Conversely, there's an article in this morning's business section about heroic IT workers putting in long hours to cope with worms, viruses, and electrical blackouts. Aaaarrrrrghhh! (I was once the coworker of a Help Desk manager who was very proud of the enormous number of calls his staff handled each week. Ummm, what if you provided systems that didn't need that much support? Hmmmm?)

Care to share?

Sure. ===== If it hurts, don't do it. ===== Each time I read an article about another worm or virus attacking computer systems (Blaster Worm hampering power repair, Aug. 20; Viruses eat away at firms' productivity, Aug. 21), I am dismayed that the authors portray the affected organizations as victims. Damage from malicious computer code is not at all like the result of some mysterious, chaotic force of nature; it is the predictable outcome of a business decision. The very design of some Microsoft products, emphasizing convenience over security, invites and enables attacks of technological vandalism. Since at least the Melissa virus (1999) and the Code Red worm (2001), we've known that exposing Microsoft mail and server software to the Internet increases the risk of damage and downtime compared to all the safer -- and often cheaper -- alternatives. It's the business equivalent of smoking cigarettes in a public place: it can kill you while it harms and annoys those around you. For companies to put themselves at unnecessary risk is a waste of their resources. For government organizations to do so is an abuse of the public trust. ===== ........................ Phillip Mills Multi-platform software development (416) 224-0714 -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml