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It's hard to imagine any net user who hasn't been victimized by a virus, those malicious chunks of software that are created and distributed by demented individuals showing off their purported computing skills. While the destructive consequences of infecting computers have been largely financial to date (although damages from any given virus routinely run in the billions of dollars), that will change when an individual or a group decides to "take out" the Internet with a worm or similar rogue application spread around the world in a matter of seconds.
Our global economic infrastructure now operates under the premise that the Internet is a given. After all, the original ARAPNET was built to withstand a nuclear strike. But its designers were more worried about someone destroying physical structures like mainframe computers and phone lines, not the critical
code that makes the Internet function. If the software foundation of the Internet is compromised, no amount of chips and wires will make it work right.
It's frighteningly easy to write a virus. In fact, there are thousands of web sites with specific instructions on creating your very own. It's so simple, teenagers do it for kicks.
This lunacy must end. Now.
The time has come for all users to stop taking a cavalier attitude toward these very real threats to the integrity of the Internet before the inevitable attack brings the world to its electronic knees.
In the race to profits and ease of use, the Internet has become extremely vulnerable. Software companies release sloppy products that makes it simple for the bad guys to take control of PCs and servers, and use them as weapons, like when a virus sends itself to contacts in your email address book, or launches a denial-of-service attack on
whitehouse.gov, which actually happened earlier this year. Network administrators turn off
firewalls because it slows down their ability to download illicit files like pirated DVD movies. Security patches and anti-virus updates are routinely ignored, resulting in hundreds of thousands of easily-corrupted systems interconnected at the speed of light.
Worst of all, pathetic anarchists masquerading as freedom advocates continue to glorify punks who hack into servers for the fun of it. This is terrorism, pure and simple. And it cannot continue.
There are four things you can do right now that will make a huge difference in the overall security of our digital nervous system:
- Install, update and run virus protection software on every one of your personal Internet access devices at all times.
- If you are in charge of a server on the Internet, make sure that all available security patches have been installed correctly.
- If your computer or server is host to sites, files or forums that cater to black-hat hackers and other criminals, delete the content immediately and report the users to the authorities.
- Make sure the data on your own computer network is backed up at a site far from your server's physical location.
You should also review your company's (and your clients') disaster contingency plans, including the ability to access business-critical information from remote locations through an extranet or other file-sharing systems that are both secure and off-site.
Despite its recent setbacks, the Internet has become an international symbol of freedom and democracy. Now more than ever, we must take serious steps to stop lunatics from attacking it, and consequently, us.
Based in Brussels, Chris
Clark is senior vice president of strategic services for
Mainsail. He is also the author of "Byte Back," a monthly
humor column for Adweek Magazines' Technology Marketing.
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