One of the answers – or is it? John C D fortells the future of virus attacks.

License Computer Users

By John C. Dvorak
August 18, 2003

Over this past weekend yet another virus/Trojan/worm/whatnot attack culminated in a lot of panic. Apparently, far too many systems were infected with this latest disease, and the Net was once again choking on the aftereffects. Probably the blackout in New York and much of the Northeast saved us because it simply took machines offline.

This new attack, which infects Microsoft Windows NT, 2000, and XP machines that have not been recently updated, goes by Lovesan and Blaster, among other names. One message it produced was “I Love You San.” Has anyone even wondered who the heck San is? Track her or him down and get to the bottom of this latest scourge.

Here’s my solution to this problem: a license to use computers. It’s time we realize that national security is at risk, as is the future of the Internet and modern business. These attacks are never going to end, that’s now obvious. Many are direct strikes against the infrastructure, such as the DNS attacks of late. Others are assaults on specific systems, such as the near ruination of the IRC network DALnet. Once in a while, a direct attack against specific Web sites takes place. Professional network administrators, who can control things to a certain extent, deal with all these sorts of attacks. When the White House site was about to be attacked, the administrators changed the IP addresses. Over this past weekend, Microsoft modified its Windows Update address just enough to foil the expected bot attack.

The problem of the future is going to be the virtual destruction of the Net and small businesses by end users, who are clueless to an extreme. These people should have their computers confiscated unless they can pass a minor proficiency test. What does it take to be a little careful without being ridiculously careful? Most users are totally out of it. For example, I know one person who will not open a JPEG, ever. This is pointless. Others see spoofed e-mail from a “friend” who writes in pidgin English and includes a weird attachment