Doubt it'll have much effect, but you never know.
luke
------ Forwarded message ------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: About this Nimda computer virus
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2001 14:02:58 +1000 (EST)
To: David Frith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Luke Kendall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
On 23 Sep, David Frith wrote:
> Nimda strikes Oz hospitals
>
> SYDNEY - Computer systems at five Sydney hospitals were
> disrupted when servers were infected with the Nimda virus.
> Services such as pathology labs were forced to revert to
> manual procedures.
Like most Unix professionals, I feel that you do the whole industry a
disservice when you report virus and worm outbreaks as above, without
pointing out that the exploit fundamentally only works against Windows
machines.
My personal hope is that as the usability of Linux on the desktop
improves, and as the billions of dollars of virus damages continue to
mount up due to Microsoft's lax attitude to security (ease of use = MS
profitability, MS profitability is of much greater importance than
security), that eventually people will be able to make an informed
decision.
Part of that will rely on getting accurate information from reporters
such as those that you represent.
I am also puzzled that Microsoft doesn't suffer large damage claims for
selling software that is unfit for general use. Though who would have
deep enough pockets to successfully sue Microsoft?
Anyway, the fact is that the large pool of technologically naive users who form
a large part of Microsoft's customers, also form a rich breeding ground
for the dissemination of viruses, worms, not to mention distributed
denial of service attacks.
And the PCs of these people provide the necessary fertile ground for
virus propagation *because* Microsoft has made a business decision that
easing off on security settings would make them more money. It sure
does, but the whole rest of the internet and business communities foot
the bill for it.
luke
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