Get off the ‘net!
So, it is Monday again. What is happening today? I made the mistake of watching C-SPAN last night and was subjected to Rush Limbaugh, but I will get to that later. I see Condoleeza Rice is not getting an early Senate confirmation hearing. Now that’s interesting. I think I will deal with that later. Ah!- NPR has a “five-part series called, ‘Digital Generations,’ begins with a report on how some rural communities are installing their own high-speed Internet connections. New research indicates that speed is the determining factor in who uses the Internet.” That is worth writing about now.
Citing a study by Nielsen//NetRatings, NPR states that the majority of Americans who access Internet from home did so via broadband. NPR made this sound like a good thing. It isn’t. This means more viruses, worms, spyware and spam being spread throughout the Internet. Why? Because Internet users are typically fairly clueless when it comes to the technology they are using. And why shouldn’t they be? You do not need to be an engineer to drive a car, turn on an air-conditioner, or make a withdrawal from an ATM. Why should the average user be expected to know he to reconfigure his or her computer to make it secure from all the bad stuff on the Internet that is out there, just waiting to infect the user’s computer? This should be the job of the people who built the operating system installed on the computer and the job of the ISP used by the user. Unfortunately, software companies and ISP’s do not look at it this way. They want to get as much of their products on the system, and as many systems as possible on the Internet. Going back to the car analogy, it is like the ISP’s and Microsoft have teamed up to build cars. And what they’ve come up with is a 70’s Ford Pinto with a leaking gas tank. If it were an aircraft, it would be the Hindenburg.
Unless these new users are very security-conscious and willing to check for daily patches (assuming their software vendors provide timely patches) and updates, they have just made it worse for all of us. Sure, users have some responsibility for what happens to their machines. All users should be expected to have reliable antivirus software on his/her computer and update said software daily. Users should also use the aforementioned antivirus software to scan the computer for viruses at least once a week. ISP’s, however, should devise a system to block the spam, viruses, spyware and worms that are out there, and to notify a user when his or her computer appears to have become an infected zombie machine. And if a user does not rectify the problem with that zombie machine, the ISP should immediately terminate that user’s Internet access until the machine can be proven to be clean.
This is not a task of just the ISP, however: The software manufacturer, especially the O/S manufacturer, should bear some responsibility for Internet security. Security should not be an afterthought, and should not be ignored until enough news about a particular flaw has been published. The software company should be proactive, should consider security first when building an application. More features and less security is just plain wrong. We do not need a shiny bloated O/S that lets outside users take control of our computers. We need a shiny bloated O/S that protects us. Face it — we are idiots. We voted Bush in for a second term, so obviously we are incapable of protecting, or thinking for, ourselves. Build your software accordingly. Add the seat belts, crumple zones, and airbag equivalents that will keep us from hurting ourselves. Accept the fact that a majority of our systems will be used to cruise the seedier side of the Internet and should be able to withstand the viral and spyware onslaught that entails. Accept that we WILL open attachments that promise naked pictures of almost anything, and that we really believe that we can get quality drugs online for rock-bottom prices. Please, protect us from ourselves; give us quality secure software and a worm/virus/spam/spyware filtered Internet. Thank you.
