daniel@island.uu.net (Dan Quayle cannot manage a crisis, he is a crisis that must be managed) (11/09/88)
I think the HIV (Huge Internet Virus) was a blessing in disguise.
It could have been *a lot* worse. As others have said, and will continue
to say, it'll wake up a lot of people to get off their collective
derrieres and fix their systems. Remember, thrashing machines with
high load averages is nothing compared to Terrabytes of Wiped Out
Files!
As for people calling for Morris's head, c'mon... If you
can believe the news (I know I usually don't :-) report from his
house, this guy supposedly was trying out an experiment that quickly
got out of hand. He allegedly contacted friends at Harvard in an
attempt to contain the virus, but it was too late. True, he shouldn't
have been doing this, but from everything I've heard, he didn't start
a malicious virus. When he was on camera outside of his parent's
house, he was visibly shaking...not a hardened criminal.
Sometimes strange events serve a useful purpose; I think the
long-term effect of the HIV is that a lot of people will take
security more seriously, and that a lot of money/data that would have
otherwise been lost to subsequent virus/worm attempts will now be
saved.
[someone please expand on this :-) ]
I'm fed up with the media misunderstanding and misrepresenting
the virus situation. They constantly sensationalize, throwing terms
such as "hacker" around with abandon... The CBS slime job of a few
weeks back comes to mind...
dan
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DanSmith IslandGraphics 4000CivicCenterDr SanRafael MarinCo CA 94903 4154911000
415 332 FAST(h) 491 0402(Fax)|d: Nobodys' fault but mine| UnixFeastsMusicFilm
daniel@island.uu.net unicom!daniel@pacbell.com {lll-crg,apple}!well!dansmithkent@lloyd.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) (11/11/88)
In article <451@island.uu.net> daniel@island.uu.net (Dan Quayle cannot manage a crisis, he is a crisis that must be managed) writes: > > I think the HIV (Huge Internet Virus) was a blessing in disguise. [stuff on whether this was a favor to the net] > dan >-- >DanSmith IslandGraphics 4000CivicCenterDr SanRafael MarinCo CA 94903 4154911000 >415 332 FAST(h) 491 0402(Fax)|d: Nobodys' fault but mine| UnixFeastsMusicFilm >daniel@island.uu.net unicom!daniel@pacbell.com {lll-crg,apple}!well!dansmith No, not HIV. HIV is the name of the AIDS virus. To be cute and name the internet worm after HIV is in very bad taste. The impact of the internet worm was TRIVIAL in comparison to the devastation of AIDS. If you don't think so, start asking system administrators which they would rather contract. If you want a cute name for the internet worm, fine, but please choose a bit more carefully. Kent Borg kent@lloyd.uucp or hscfvax!lloyd!kent
slf@well.UUCP (Sharon Lynne Fisher) (11/12/88)
>I'm fed up with the way the media sensationalized the Internet worm...
I am working with Washington Journalism Review on an article on this very
topic. I talked with the editor this morning, and all I have to do, he says,
is convince them that I can cover computers and security issues. I don't feel
this is a problem. We're talking again next week. So if you have specific
examples of media screwups along this line, please mail them to me. Thanks!