Saturday, February 7, 2004

Young people around the world spend their Saturday nights writing fiendishly contagious computer viruses and worms. Are they artists, pranksters or techno-saboteurs? [New York Times: Technology] Entertaining but mostly superficial article. It notes usefully that one can see malware as an adaptive exploitation of a software ecosystem, but it then falls back into the usual wringing of hands about who is responsible and how to track down the miscreants. It would be much more useful if it highlighted our shared responsibilities as software developers, network managers, and networked computer users in keeping the ecosystem as healthy as possible for all. Anyone's ineptness or negligence can inflict widespread damage. Arguing that the "real" culprits are those who who write or set off malware is as useless as arguing that a biological virus is the real culprit of an epidemic. Sure, but how do we stop it? Everyone who could affect the disease's spread is responsible, and those who fail to take all the recommended precautions are behaving badly, starting with software vendors and ending with those who click on that attachment. 10:57:30 PM