I am also glad to read this article. The answer to Hellcat's question is, sooner or later we will all pay.

If anti-virus, UPS and backups are installed at many small businesses, all they have to do is install ZoneAlarm, BlackIce or Norton firewall, for free or at a nominal charge.

Many ISPs offer this type of rudimentary awareness education, but many folks just don't take advantage of this information.

I look at educating family, friends, and neighbors as a duty. I'm a security evangelist (as well as sysadmin) for these folks and anyone else who will listen. I'm no zealot (but I know one when I see one!)

Several years ago, I gave a seminar on privacy that received local news coverage. The audience consisted of many of the grandmas and grandpas spoken of here -- hey, it was Palm Beach... (if only I had talked about voting!)

Anyway, I had a few sound bites that made their way into the story, and the audience asked good questions about home computer security, but only after I mentioned what they should be doing. They were astute enough to know "bad things" could happen to them, but only when the "bad things" were pointed out to them. (think of the new citibank commercial)

To reiterate -- we all pay for poor home computer security. Small businesses would do well to adopt a receptive attitude to a "pay me now or pay me a whole bunch later" front from their "computer guy." It's a FACT. Despite what many believe, computers and computer security isn't rocket science or subatomic physics. It's common sense that can be applied after education is received.

Much was made of the concept of an Internet Driver's license... Maybe the ISPs that offer the security awareness pages (like mine) force the users to complete and pass an online exam before their account can access the web or recieve email... Maybe they even scan their users occaisionally. A pain to implement? Maybe, but it is clear we all pay (loss of bandwidth, many reboots) when user ignorance is exploited. I know I don't want to see myself, or any friends or family wrongly jailed.

My $2.00

JF

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