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Electronic data loss: malice or missteps?
From: mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 15:40:07 -0600
From: darek.milewski () us pwcglobal com http://www.chicago.tribune.com/tech/specialreport/article/0,2669,ART-34595,FF.html Electronic data loss: malice or missteps? By Darnell Little Tribune Staff Writer September 17, 1999 Worried about computer viruses like Toadie, ExploreZip and Melissa? Maybe you shouldn't be. When it comes to electronic data loss, malicious viruses are no match for the daily missteps of average computer users, according to a poll released this summer. Out of the 300 Microsoft Windows NT administrators surveyed in the study, 88 percent said accidental deletions of computer files by in-house workers caused most of their headaches, while only 3 percent said viruses were a major problem. "There is a tremendous amount of media coverage on viruses and the amount of damage that viruses can cause, but even in some of the oldest studies that I've pulled up, viruses only account for 3 to 7 percent of all data loss," said Phil Proffit, director of research for Broadcasters Network International, the California-based market research firm that conducted the study. "I can understand why the media covers viruses so much, it's a sexy topic," Proffit said. "And yet there is this vastly larger amount of data and productivity being loss due to accidental deletions. If we try to place a dollar value on it, it would just be billions and billions of dollars being lost in terms of productivity." The poll focused only on Windows NT because of the operating system's growing popularity among business users and because there is a general belief among system administrators that Windows users are less technically adept than users on other operating systems, according to Proffit. "Unix users tend to be better educated than NT users," he said. "And uneducated users are the single largest source of accidental deletions. It's just that on Unix-based systems, either the system administrators have been more clever about how they protect certain critical files on servers or the users themselves tend to be a bit more educated on exactly what the program can and can't do. "This isn't to say that educated users aren't making mistakes. But the uneducated user is a greater risk on NT systems because they have the Recycle Bin sitting there and they think, 'Great, if I make a deletion it's caught, it's not a big deal.'" [snip..] ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM
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