Educate new employees about virus hoaxes the easy way
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The media portrays virus writers as teenage prodigies whose temper tantrums threaten the world. The media portrays antivirus companies as serious business professionals who work closely with competitors and international agencies to keep virus writers at bay. If you listen to the media, it's a World War with clear lines drawn between good & evil.The media doesn't have a clue. "Drunken brawl" most accurately describes the virus/antivirus conflict. You can't always tell the good guys from the bad guys (they occasionally switch sides) and it's every man for himself. Virus writers rarely advance the state of the art -- yet antivirus firms profit by declaring them deadly computer terrorists.
Few books about viruses delve into this bizarre soap opera, and most of those only cover it briefly. Crypt Newsletter editor George C. Smith's entire book exposes an insane world where everybody claws at each others' throats -- and where even the virus writers have marketing departments. Don't let its publication date fool you: this book takes a historical look at the madhouse beginning. 172 pages written with an utterly cynical sense of humor & irony. I read The Virus Creation Labs for the first time while sitting in an airport terminal and I repeatedly embarrassed myself with bursts of laughter.
This book gets my strongest recommendation. I consider it required reading for every computer security expert. I wish every technology reporter would read it, too.
Bias disclosure: I truly envy Smith for his work on this book. History will recognize him as the one who documented the insanity on Planet Virus. He & I now co-host the Computer Virus Hysteria Awards.
You'll find quite a few books out there which discuss computer security in both physical and logical terms. This book's title narrows its focus to the logical aspect of protecting data, the most valuable asset of your computer.Bias disclosure: I contributed about 10% of the book's total volume. (I refused payment for my work.) Endrijonas lists me first in the acknowledgments.
- Book review: Boardwatch magazine [positive]
- Book review: Crypt Newsletter [positive]
The back cover says it best:Why do we know so little about mathematics? And what is the social cost of our 'innumeracy'? ...Paulos argues that our inability to deal with very large numbers [and] probabilities...Barbie Dolls say "math class is tough," but don't shy away from this book. Paulos explains math in a clear, fun style. Politicians and special-interest groups can -- and often do -- take full advantage of anybody who doesn't understand even the fundamentals of statistics. This book is a must-read. (Paulos also wrote a couple of sequels related to the 'dyscalculia' phenomenon.)Bias disclosure: I don't forgive the people who helped create 1992's Michelangelo hysteria. Reporters just didn't get it: I'd say "if we have 80 million PCs on the planet, and you say 5 million will die on March 6, then one out of every 16 PCs on the planet will bite the bullet." Duh! Absolutely simple math. If I ran the world, I'd make Paulos' book a yearly reading requirement for every newspaper & TV reporter.
This highly technical publication tackles both the issues surrounding viruses -- and the issues surrounding the antivirus industry. Subscriptions ain't cheap: one year (12 issues) costs up to $395. If you do any serious work in the field of viruses...Bias disclosure: I know some of the people who write for this publication.
Another publication I wouldn't exactly recommend for the layman. Editor George Smith, Ph.D., takes a highly charged, highly cynical look at the security/antivirus industry. Available at no charge directly from the Crypt website.Bias disclosure: A [positive] review of Janet Endrijonas' book Data Security (see above) focused almost entirely on the section I contributed regarding 'false authority syndrome.' Smith's skeptical opinions feel like a cool splash after a long, hot day. He & I now co-host the Computer Virus Hysteria Awards.
Wired long ago made its mark with in-yer-face reporting on the computing scene. Their reporters ask probing questions when others walk away satisfied with a marketing department's spin-control answer. For example, Netscape once tried to sweep another Navigator bug under the carpet just days after kicking Microsoft in the teeth for a similar bug in Explorer. Wired alone asked the obvious question right on their home page: "if the solution's so easy, why was there a bug in the first place?"Bias disclosure: Wired reporters occasionally call for my opinions and highlight this website in virus stories.
The "MS" in MSNBC gives it an important edge when reporting on viruses & other computer-related issues. It seems poetic to give them my first (and only) mainstream-media recommendation.Bias disclosure: MSNBC reporters occasionally interview me and highlight this website. Internet correspondent Mary Kathleen Flynn recommended this website during the Hare virus media furor.
(And I hope anchor Brian Williams will forgive me for including him in the 1996 Computer Virus Hysteria Awards. He did very well, you know, for the time allotted... his on-air director just didn't give him enough time to conduct a legit interview.)
Run by Henri Delger, one of many who spent years of his free time helping people with virus problems. He expanded onto the Internet with a daily email newsletter because, quite frankly, the world needs it. Readers' questions & comments appear in some issues, and you'll always learn valuable advice when it comes to viruses.Bias disclosure: Delger occasionally recommends this website in his emails. He goes to great lengths to help people and I for one applaud his efforts.
A promotional newsletter distributed by Woody Leonhard, a respected developer of third-party products for Microsoft Office users. WOW regularly covers Office security issues (macro viruses in particular) with a decidedly non-Microsoft flavor. You can receive the newsletter by email at no charge.Bias disclosure: Woody & I move in some of the same circles and he occasionally highlights this website in his newsletter. I turn to him first for detailed insight when the subject turns to Office macros. He recently invited me to write occasional columns (without payment) for his newsletter.
Operated by Wolfgang Stiller, an internationally recognized virus expert and author of "Integrity Master." An excellent location to get info on viruses of course, plus other (more mundane?) threats to your computer. Integrity Master doesn't just deal with viruses -- it focuses on the far more important need for complete data integrity. (A more important focus in my humble opinion.) Their web site gives a much better description of Integrity Master. Stiller also offers his own views on virus myths if you'd like to read it.Bias disclosure: Stiller & I go back a few years; I count him as one of the genuine "good guys." He offers Integrity Master as fully functional shareware, and I really like the shareware concept.
Operated by Tom Simondi, the man who developed the famous "Tutor.COM" computer tutorial software in the 1980s. Simondi since released "Tutor.COM - Viruses" for those who need basic insight into viruses and related malicious software. This tutorial does a fantastic job. Highly recommended.Bias disclosure: Simondi & I go back to the late 1980s. If anyone can explain the threat of viruses to the layperson, Tom can.
About.com "guides" provide up-to-date news, opinions, and links on everything from adoption to the X-Files. Ken Dunham does a great job as the antivirus guide, serving up the latest news & commentary in terms a new user can understand. A refreshing note: Dunham gives prolific virus hoaxes the same news coverage as prolific viruses. You can also subscribe to his free "Infection Connection" email newsletter.Bias disclosure: Dunham consults me when he needs a reality check, and his "hoaxes & myths" section lists this website as a "best of the net" resource. His email newsletter helps me keep track of current events in the virus world. I sometimes threaten to co-write the next killer opinion piece with him (for no profit).
Yahoo! provides an extremely detailed search engine for just about anything you want to find on the web. Their "urban legends" category will help you learn more about all the wild myths running rampant around the world. I specifically recommend www.urbanlegends.com and www.snopes.com.Bias disclosure: www.urbanlegends.com gains valuable input from Terry Chan; we both appeared in a CyberLife segment on computer-related urban legends. And of course I list this website on Yahoo!.
Bias disclosure: Antivirus firms waste resources dealing with customers frightened by the latest hoax. I believe they [rightfully] offer these pages so customers can learn about myths/hoaxes without leaving the firm's website. Together, we can all make a difference. An asterisk identifies websites with known links to this site.
- Companies
- Organizations
- Government
- United States
Interesting places to go for website change detection, counters, graphics, icons, and backgrounds.
- NetMind notification when a website or web page changes
- Net_Digits commercial counters
- Dave Giordano banner graphics
- DynoTech favicon.ico graphic
- Over the Rainbow backgrounds
- Matterform Media icons
Bias disclosure: I use their services on this website.
A free service offered by Oxcart Software. If a well-meaning person sends you a hoax alert, you can forward it to a special address at hoaxkill.com. An automated service will identify all the individuals who received the alert and will reply to each one of them with information about hoaxes.Bias disclosure: I congratulate Jeroen Sikking of Oxcart Software for turning a fantastic idea into reality. He claims not to harvest email addresses, and my own tests of the HoaxKill service back him up. My conversations with him show he just wants to offer a useful free service.
Brought to you by the folks at Contact Plus, this shareware product deletes spam from your mailbox before you retrieve it. Spam Buster augments (it does not replace) the software you currently use to read email. It now includes numerous "virus hoax" filters so you can ignore well-meaning friends who get duped.Bias disclosure: Ed Trujillo of Contact Plus & I go back a few years; we travel in the same shareware circles, and I really like the shareware concept. Ed fell in love with the idea of virus hoax filters when I approached him about it in mid-1998. I beta-tested the new version after providing many of the specs for virus-hoax filters.
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