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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week –
02/08/06 |
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What came
first – the virus or the virus company ? Or –
yet another virus scare proves to be harmless Last
Friday was supposed to be another computer doomsday – the nyxem virus
was supposed to trigger on that date and destroy files on millions of
computers. So the message from antivirus vendors was run to your computer
store and buy an antivirus program, or update the one that you already have
which you let lapse, or buy one online, because this could be the end of the
computer world as we know it. And once again
the press jumped on it and fanned the flames of the panic, and once again,
the doomsday came and went and the computer world was still here. Those of
us who’ve been in the computer world for awhile have heard it all before. In fact,
the biggest virus hoax in history happened about 14 years ago, with the
michaelangelo virus. The hype on that one was more than the super bowl hype,
if you can believe it. And the press really jumped all over that one, and fell
flat on their faces, along with the virus vendors, most notably John McAffee,
creator of McAffee antivirus, one of the very first antivirus companies. McCaffee
had predicted at least 5 million computers would be wiped out by
Michelangelo, and after the fact the most hyped estimates – by
companies like McAfee – were maybe 10-20 thousand. I remember some of the countries they listed as being hit
were all 3rd world companies – where it would be impossible
to verify their estimates, and obviously many of them were without
electricity McAfee
got so much egg on his face for that one that even the press stopped
believing his predictions for a little while. His name went down in history
as the computer world equivalent of Chicken Little paranoia, The Geraldo
Rivera of Al Capone’s tomb fame, and to this day there are annual awards
for hyperbole named after McAfee. Time
magazine had done a feature on viruses when they first appeared, and talked
about how McCaffee would drive around the country in an old hippy bus
redecorated to look like a bug, as he peddled the early versions of his
anti-virus program. The first
pc world virus
appeared in 1986, and it was known as the brain virus. It showed up in
Europe, where American tourists were buying illegal copies of software, and
when they came back and made even more illegal copies, the virus began
spreading. I remember this because I had started doing Raw Bytes about that
time, and I went to several local computer stores, and they all said that
there was no such thing as a computer virus. Those stores are all out of
business and now there’s thousands of known pc
viruses, in addition to all the spyware and adware programs which are known
as malware. There are
a lot of weird stories related to the early days of viruses. At one time
there actually was a Bulgarian virus factory, young computer programmers who
had been taught programming, but then found there were no programming jobs
available in their country , and decided to write
viruses to strike back at capitalism. So now
the pc computer virus is 20 years old, so not only do you need an antivirus
program – you need a total internet security program which protects you
against viruses, spyware, adware. Phishing,
telephone dialers, hackers and who knows what other evil lurks in the hearts
of internet pirates. So you do
need to take security measures, and protect yourself on the internet. But you
should do this as an acknowledged fact of computing life, and not because of
any doomsday scenarios you read about or hear on the news. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2005 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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