Devblog

Ask a group of casual internet users what the biggest problem with the modern computing world is today and they most of them will probably say it’s spam or popups (read: spyware). As 80% of all spam apparently comes from botnets, it follows that the majority of our problems come from insecure PCs that have been exploited.

Those in the pro-Microsoft camp will say that Windows is always targetted because it’s the most popular operating system on Earth, which is true. They’ll also say that Microsoft’s new offering will fix all the problems, stop spam, eliminate spyware and repair the ozone. Erm… maybe. The problem as I see it though is not just tightening up security, but educating those home users and small businesses who don’t have experienced IT staff to protect and repair their machines.

It’s fine releasing a new version of Windows that don’t have all user accounts set to Administrator level by default and the major update of XP SP2 which turned on Automatic Updates and put a basic firewall in place, but these changes either don’t go far enough to protect the end-user or in the case of Automatic Updates, still require interaction from the end-user to be effective.

Who know’s the best way to go about it, but in my little bunch of co-workers and friends/family that come to me with problems, telling them what the problem is, what caused it and how to stop it happening again seems to help a lot more than just transparently applying a few patches for them. It seems that Google has similar ideas in the bag as I noticed the other day.

I was Googling “This site may harm your computer.“. It appears that Google are taking action by educting end-usres by informing them of sites that may install malware. I think this is a brilliant first step and Google should be congratulated.