Who’s really responsible for spreading viruses?
June 3rd, 2003 by Kelson. Posted in Annoyances, Viruses and tagged for security, usersMy dad forwarded me an opinion piece from the eWeek newsletter called Idiocy Imperils the Web. Jim Rapoza argues that - especially by now - people should really have figured out not to click on unknown attachments. My favorite quote: “Most people figure out that if they keep grabbing the electric fence, they’ll get a shock every time.”
I’ve thought along these lines for several years now. Once the first two waves of high-profile email viruses hit, it was time for people to wise up. Instead we have a variation on the classic joke:
Three guys walk into a bar. You’d think the third one would have ducked.
Except it’s more like “Ten guys walk into a bar. You’d think the third, fourth, fifth…”
Although I’m also reminded of a quote from Jakob Neilsen’s “Alertbox” usability column from April 1996:
The fact that the Internet doubles every year implies that at any time half of the users will have been on the net for less than a year. In other words, we are doomed to have 50 percent novice users for the foreseeable future.
This has, of course, slowed down since 1996 - recent statistics show Internet growth in the US has dropped to 5% - but it seems very unlikely that newbies can account for all - or even most - of the virus spreaders.
Yes, the responsibility rests ultimately on the jerks who write these things - but they wouldn’t be able to get anywhere without the idiots who click on them.
