I was quite interested, although not entirely suprised, by this article this morning. “Clueless office workers help spread computer viruses” claims a newly released survey.

Like I said, this doesn’t particularly suprise me.

  • The people quizzed admit they are not aware of even the most basic virus prevention measures
  • The workers quizzed believe that have no part to play in preventing the spread of viruses, preferring to leave responsibility to “their IT department, Microsoft or the government”
  • The people surveyed said they are “too busy to download anti-virus updates”


Not overly suprising in a qualitive sense - although the statistics are very worrying. Another couple I can add from my own experience:

  • Over the last couple of weeks a number of my friends have been hit by MyDoom. And only one figured out what it was before it did any serious damage.
  • During one summer job I was regularly forwarded infected zip files by an oblivious colleague who (probably fortunately) didn’t have a zip extractor. It’s lucky I know what a suspicious email looks like - apparently unlike two-thirds of UK office workers.

If there’s a cold going around most people will take some kind of precautions - making sure they get enough vitamins, getting lots of fluid, wearing a face mask (if you feel particularly extreme) and stocking up on Lemsip ‘just in case’. So why do we treat computer viruses so differently.

Well, for a start if you get ill it’s you that’s stuck in bed for a week feeling awful - if your computer gets a virus then there’s a good chance that it can be “someone else’s problem” (the IT department, Microsoft or the government perhaps.) Also, until you’ve had your hard drive scrambled, there’s a huge temptation to believe “it’ll never happen to me.”

Most people are so convinced that they’re not going to get a virus that they don’t take the time to protect themselves - or even learn how.