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I am glad to hear of another person mentioning appliance-based internet devices. "User awareness is our best defense". Sure, however best is just not good enough. Regardless of how comprehensive or convincing our training is, it is still insufficient. Honestly, I think we missed a great opportunity with those appliances. I like to call them appliances because, well really, that's what they are and that's what people want/need (they just don't know it). I recently fielded a phone call from an employee working out of his home office. Quickly diagnosing his problem as being spy-ware related, I offered to walk him through the cleanup. However, when he asked me; "is this going to be as simple as pressing a few buttons"? I nearly hung up. No, this isn't. This isn't your toaster, this isn't your blender, and this isn't an appliance. I realize that you hit the "NO" button on the popup asking you to install the latest coupon offering software. News flash for you amigo, "NO" means "YES" on those popups. And same goes for the "X" in the top right.

Just getting people to defrag was tough enough. People don't want to purchase a PC, then after unwrapping it, turn around and install updates exceeding the size of the OS itself, anti-spam protection, anti-virus software, pop-up stopping programs, spyware removal software, firewalls, etc. They want an appliance. They want a toaster that can give them their email. My money is on the return of the appliance-based internet devices. Viva la Audrey and WebTV.

*Don't get me wrong. I don't believe people aren't smart enough to keep their machines safe. Just unwilling. I can't say as I blame them either. I do it for a living and I am having a tough time keeping up with all the vulnerabilities.*

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