Letter to the Editor
As bad as the current crop of this weeks computer viruses are - they are nothing compared to what might follow. The next generation of computer viruses that are likely to come soon as three weeks from now might actually take the Internet down and cause massive data losses on a scale never been seen before.
The current virus named "SoBig" installs a back door into the victims computer allowing these millions of infected computers to be in an open state waiting to be exploited in the future. It has been speculated in press reports that the virus author plans to use it as a launch pad for a massive spam attack - but it could be far worse.
With millions of computers vulnerable - any programmer on the planet could figure out how this virus works and use it to launch their own attack. It could be used - for example - to instantly spread not only to currently infected computers - but new computers as well and instantly destroy all your data - or email your sensitive documents to random people. And your virus protection software will have no effect in stopping this because virus software rarely protects computers from the lastest newest virus.
These viruses are a result of flaws in the Microsoft Windows operating system and it's time for the world to demand that Microsoft take affirmative steps to deal with this issue. Millions of computers are open and vulnerable and if a terrorist were to combine the technologies of SoBig with last weeks MsBlaster - they could take the Internet down worldwide. We all need to act now to prevent this from happening.
Marc Perkel
San Francisco, CA.
Sorry for the longer than usual letter, but this takes more words to describe. I have 25 years of computing experience. I have a one man one server dot com company and lots of sys admin experience. This threat is EXTREMELY real as you probably know by how clogged your email is now. I invite you to run this by your tech people and see what they think.
Marc
I use Lindows, an extremely user friendly version of Debian Linux, and everyone I know who has tried it never goes back to Windows. I don't know if you've checked it out, but they offer a way to test drive it without partitioning or removing Windows. Read up on the reviews and awards this system is receiving. Microsoft is doing everything they can to get rid of Lindows, as they view it as the threat it is. They even offer software (not Wine) that allows you to run Windows software on it. I don't even bother though, and I'll never go back to Windows. Yes, it has a few glitches, but not bad, and stability/security wise it just can't be beat.
I first read your comments in the "American Politics Journal", and I heartily agree. I would have been nice, though, if you had mentioned moving to Linux (perchance Macintosh) as an alternative.
In the mean time, as you noted, Windows users need to "act now".
Hmmm! Another Marc Perkel prediction unfulfilled.
Posted by: Randy Charles Morin at June 30, 2004 09:57 PM