I`d be interested to know what percentage of PC owners out there represents a computer literate bunch, and how many are tentative worshipers of the mystical box. Because the one thing I learnt from this whole Blaster worm debacle was that to expect the average, intelligent, but not particularly computer literate human being to go through the process of downloading a patch, or removing the offending code if already infected, is probably way over most people`s heads.
They didn`t believe us when we first told them about viruses, and they`re still pretty sceptical this time around.
Georgina Guedes, journalist, ITWeb
Let`s start with the terminology. It`s taken many years to convince the typewriter generation that machines can get viruses too, that we`re not making it up and that it doesn`t only happen in the movies. Once convinced, however, the fear with which they regard this threat is matched only by the reverence with which they respect those of us who know how to work search engines and the cut-and-paste function.
The virus concept finally communicated, we offhandedly introduce a new nasty to the list of computer perils: "Computers can also get worms."
They didn`t believe us when we first told them about viruses, and they`re still pretty sceptical this time around.
"Worse than that, these worms come through holes or vulnerabilities in Windows."
This is met with a very, very blank look.
"And you know that whole anti-virus program we made you install? The one we painstakingly taught you to update? The one you didn`t update because you were scared of doing something wrong? Remember that fight? OK, well, even though we`re very pleased that you`ve been updating your virus definitions, that`s not really going to help this time."
And it`s not just the typewriter generation. When I was interviewing people at South African companies to find out how many of them had been affected by Blaster, I was told authoritatively by a spokesperson that "we have found a couple of patches, but we`re closing them up at the moment".
A friend told me that there was nothing to worry about, as he hadn`t opened any suspicious e-mails. His lackadaisical attitude was in stark contrast to my mother`s. Not known for her affinity with microwaves, or even toasters, my mother has managed to successfully establish a home office, complete with laptop, printer, fax machine and Internet access.
The virus scenario is one that terrifies her, especially since her anti-virus software always wants to update at the "most inconvenient times", and is consequently eternally consigned to the bottom of the list of things to achieve before bedtime. The guilt, coupled with genuine terror of vanishing documents, prompted a rather aggrieved phone call to me sometime late on Friday night when she caught wind of the pending attack.
Despite my best assurances that while it was entirely possible that her system had contracted the worm, in this instance, it wasn`t going to do anything particularly awful to her computer, and if she just turned it off, everything would be fine until the next day, she remained unconvinced. Our conversation concluded somewhat frostily.
Microsoft`s bulletin to the end-user was also a bit of a joke. While the techies who compiled that one did provide a couple of idiot-proof instructions, like ensuring that users` machines weren`t connected to the Internet by helping them to locate and unplug their modem cables, they also offered guidance along the lines of "activating firewall software will help to limit the effects of the worm on your computer". Try telling that to your grandmother.
What were the creators of the worm thinking? Their payoff line: "Billy Gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!," suggests that they hoped that Microsoft would learn their lesson, pay less attention to the bottom line and more to working out bugs in its software. I assume the upshot of all of this would be beneficial to the end-user. What a pity then, that it`s the end-users, and only the end-users, who have actually been inconvenienced by any of this.
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