RE: Anit-Virus help for all of us??????

["Vivien M." <vivienm () dyndns org>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog () merit edu [mailto:owner-nanog () merit edu] On 
> Behalf Of Ryan Dobrynski
> Sent: November 25, 2003 12:21 PM
> To: nanog () merit edu
> Subject: Re: Anit-Virus help for all of us??????
>
> like everyone else, I don't have the answer. Just another way 
> of looking at it. I have learned however that trying to fix a 
> behavioral problem with technology generally doesn't work. 
> Untill "the users" in general get a little smarter about 
> thier new toy, things won't get much better.

No, the solution seems to me to increase the liability involved. If a couple
of people who neglected to take care of their computers got hauled into
court and made to pay a fine and/or spend a few weeks in a jail cell, and if
the mainstream media got to watch (and didn't take a "those poor people"
stance that makes the whole initiative look bad), things would change.

Fact is, if I don't properly maintain my brakes on my car and I crash into
something/someone, there will be legal consequences enforced with the full
coercive power of the government. If I don't properly maintain my computer
and as a result, it harms someone else (eg: by allowing others to use it for
DDoSing that other person's network), there should also be serious legal
consequences. And just like saying "Oh, I didn't know brakes weren't
supposed to last for 150000km" wouldn't be an acceptable excuse for my
poorly-maintained car harming others, neither should "I didn't know that
computers needed security regular updates" be an excuse for me to have a
virus/trojan/etc-infected computer that harms others.

Yes, this is a political solution, but this is a political and social (and
economic, to a lesser extent) problem, not a technological one. When
technology has the potential to cause harm, it (except for computer
technology) is regulated to limit the amount of harm that is done.

Vivien
-- 
Vivien M.
vivienm () dyndns org
Assistant System Administrator
Dynamic DNS Network Services
http://www.dyndns.org/