W
Walterius
Dear computer security ignorati, whoe'er you may be:
I once (maybe a year ago) examined a church computer. It had over 100 virus
hits. The AV pgm was turned off. "Why," I asked? "I turned it off because I
couldn't check my email from home," she said. I turned the AV back on. The
next time I checked, she had turned it off again. I promptly snitched to the
ministers. And this was an intelligent woman. She simply had no
comprehension of the seriousness of computer security. Her email came first,
period.
Around the same time I checked the computer of a friend for whom I was doing
some computer work. She had about 65 viruses. She thought of her new (and
first) computer as a typewriter. She couldn't grasp that she had to actively
protect it. She had no comprehension of security or of computers in general.
(Choke.)
In those days, viruses were a pain, but seldom fatal. Today, they can be
devastating.
To those who know nothing of AVG, Spybot, Ad-Aware, MSAS, SpywareBlaster,
TeaTimer, SPF, DCOMbob, Shoot the Messenger, UnPlugandPlay, and all the
rest: I feel for you. You *must* learn, use and update such pgms. If you
don't, you will accomplish two things:
1. Your computers will become unusable and will cost you large amounts of $$
to clean up. You may also lose your identity, your credit card numbers, your
tax records, etc., etc. *
2. You will do your best to make our computers unusable too.
* For optimum security, computers with such information should not IMO ever
have any connection to the Internet. That means two computers: your new one
for sensitive information, and your old one for the Net.
Good luck. (Sob.)
Walterius
I once (maybe a year ago) examined a church computer. It had over 100 virus
hits. The AV pgm was turned off. "Why," I asked? "I turned it off because I
couldn't check my email from home," she said. I turned the AV back on. The
next time I checked, she had turned it off again. I promptly snitched to the
ministers. And this was an intelligent woman. She simply had no
comprehension of the seriousness of computer security. Her email came first,
period.
Around the same time I checked the computer of a friend for whom I was doing
some computer work. She had about 65 viruses. She thought of her new (and
first) computer as a typewriter. She couldn't grasp that she had to actively
protect it. She had no comprehension of security or of computers in general.
(Choke.)
In those days, viruses were a pain, but seldom fatal. Today, they can be
devastating.
To those who know nothing of AVG, Spybot, Ad-Aware, MSAS, SpywareBlaster,
TeaTimer, SPF, DCOMbob, Shoot the Messenger, UnPlugandPlay, and all the
rest: I feel for you. You *must* learn, use and update such pgms. If you
don't, you will accomplish two things:
1. Your computers will become unusable and will cost you large amounts of $$
to clean up. You may also lose your identity, your credit card numbers, your
tax records, etc., etc. *
2. You will do your best to make our computers unusable too.
* For optimum security, computers with such information should not IMO ever
have any connection to the Internet. That means two computers: your new one
for sensitive information, and your old one for the Net.
Good luck. (Sob.)
Walterius
