I was watching TV the other night, and a commercial for AOL came on. Like any self-respecting geek I have no love for AOL, but what did interest me was their new offer, free anti-virus software. I went to their site, and it’s not just a cheesy anti-virus scanner that they created, they’re actually giving away subscriptions to McAfee Anti-Virus to their members. Good! Finally! I’m surprised they didn’t do this earlier, afterall it’s their network that is abused when trojans start sending spams from Aunt Tilly’s Dell.
This reminds me of of a conversation I had a few months back on a mailing list. I was arguing about whose fault the virus epidemic is. These LUG members pointed their finger at “stupid users” but I was reluctant to blame them.
I don’t blame my grandfather for this. I blame the industry for giving him keys to a car and not telling him that he could get into accidents with it.
So I started thinking about how we can educate the public, but my only method of telling the world about things is the internet, doh! The people in most need of information wouldn’t be able to find this, even if they were told about it many wouldn’t even know where to put the address (what is an address bar?). So it’d need to be printed information, distributed… but by who?
I thought perhaps the computer stores should give it out to their customers, but telling people that owning a computer is a responsibility might turn them off to buying one. And who reads the documentation that comes with a computer? Only geeks. So the manufacturer wouldn’t be a good giver of such information.
“It’s the ISPs who must do this!” I thought. I think it’s really in their best interest to educate their customers, so why aren’t they? Do they think people will be scared off? I think it just needs to be taught properly, presented to the customer in a manner that says “here are the (basic) problems, and these are the steps you need to take to prevent them, we will help you” Or perhaps it’s too expensive? I think in the long run educating people when they first log on is a better investment than dealing with complaints and all sorts of junk from viruses on your network later.
Anyway, AOL took a step in the right direction, good job.
Still, when any family member is looking into a new system I say “Get a mac!”
Tonight we’re going to a New Years LAN party at a friend’s house. Mmm new years lan party.
*wanders off*