Tough love for Microsoft users
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Fool me once, shame on youHow many times do users of Windows need to be kicked in the head? It's asif we have a community of people who, upon discovery of "kick me" signsattached to their backs, do nothing -- and then complain when theyeventually do get kicked.
Fool me twice, shame on me
The first time was So, surprise of surprises, now we have Melissa's successor, the ILOVEYOU worm.To me it's simply no coincidence that ILOVEYOU shares its name with Barney's theme song.For you see, Microsoft Outlook (and other email software that'ssusceptible to ILOVEYOU) shares much with the Barney program. Eye candy is paramount.Short term visual stimulation means more than substance (which is OK ifyou're three years old, beyond that there's not much excuse). The emphasisis on the visual, and attention spans run on Internet time. Until recently I believed that the blame was squarely on Microsoft'sshoulders. After all, when most people buy a computer, they don't knowthat they're being sold a box with gaping security holes.However, it appears that business users got hit harder by ILOVEYOUthan home users. While I received more than a dozen love letters Thursdaymorning, neither my wife nor my kids or any of their friends received anycopies at all. It's not Microsoft that's at fault, nor the anti-virus companies thatcapitalize on such events yet, when all is said and done, are powerless toprevent them. It's the IT managers in businesses and governments, whose systems got hit, who should know better by now. The problem lies with the sheep who continue to usesuch dangerous products when credible and safer alternatives exist. The heart of the matter I just wonder how many times Microsoft users will allow themselves to be kickedbefore they come to their senses. The Outlook facility that allows you to run arbitrary pieces of emailedsoftware without asking you first is Evil, pure and simple. It allowsothers to send you software that does strange and unknown things to yoursystem. And even virus scanners can't pre-warn you of the dangers inside abundle of bits that's shipped to you in compressed or encrypted form. It'sno surprise that by the time any of the popular virus catching softwarewas modified to repel ILOVEYOU, it was too late. And you can counton anti-virus software's inability to repel the next one too. Even when we have "legitimate" uses for the facility of running programsfrom email, I wonder whether the pain is worth the gain. In February TheRegister reported on such a "legitimate" download, from Now, this ain't no fraud -- GoHip's customer service manager, David Spencer,pointed out that customers are made aware, up front, of what the software does before they download it.If this is what passes for legitimate use ofMicrosoft's (in)security features, I still must ask whether it is really worth the grief that wehave seen inflicted on email users the world over. Simple solution Microsoft continues to assert -- despite Department of Justice pronouncements -- thatits own concerns override those of its users. Yesterday it was Internetsecurity, today it's If you'd like an even more detailed shopping list describing Microsoft'sdisrespect for its users, my old friend Bill Campbell (owner of Later in the day when ILOVEYOU hit, a Unix-using friend posted thisto a mailing list: Ignorance is no longer an excuse... as if it ever was. Could ILOVEYOU have been avoided? Let me know in the TalkBack below.
Compounding the problem, to me, is Microsoft's response -- nothing.The company
So what to do? Don't trust the sellers of a house who tell you that itlooks prettier without door locks. Stop buying products that sacrificeyour most basic security in favor of a fake veneer of sophistication. Ifthis is the kind of innovation Microsoft says would be endangered by itsbreakup, maybe that's reason enough for a split.M$ virus days are the best candidates for catching up on sleepwhen you don't have to worry about them while the unwashed massesare "down."
When I first read it I thought it was awfully pompous. But the more Ithink of it, the more I've come to believe that most of the people --especially business users -- who got kicked by this love bug, were justasking for it.
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