Digital You or Digital Poo? McAfee's Mangled Museum Metaphors

[Bob Crabtree]

The company's Science Museum exhibit is trying to explain a couple of important security issues using two big screens - each maybe 8ft wide and with a built in camera, so anyone who walks in front of a screen appears on it.

One screen is intend to convey the idea that we are beset by computer bugs. People appearing on screen are shown with a whole lot of computer-generated insects swarming around them. They can dispel the critters by waving their arms or shaking their heads. That's not something that's ever got rid of bugs on any PC I've worked on - though I usually do both out of sheer frustration.

The other screen is intended to convey the idea of identity theft and requires two people to stand in front of it, whereupon their heads get swapped around.

The whole thing reminded me all too vividly (if drab can indeed inspire vivid) of the numerous inadequate and boring displays that took a cold wet flannel to visitors' sensibilities within the Millennium dome.

Oh, yes, I can be a bit abrupt but, honestly, you've got to go and see it for yourself to see how wretched it is. But save yourself the trouble and just checkout my report.

[hoodmeister]

Agreed that the general populace is in a dire state when it comes to general knowledge of the pitfalls of internet activity...

I think, though, that the ball doesn't necessarily lie in the court of public knowledge. The average computer user often feels that they are "forced" by todays society into using computers, and, in turn, the internet. As such they aren't interested in learning more about the potential risks, and how to help prevent them. They want to be able to check their emails, make a job application, look for a house, and leave their computer alone... What they don't want is to sit down for a day trying to figure out how the hell to set up this firewall (which they've probably had to fork out for) only to find that things which they could use before, now don't work. It's a similar scenario with antivirus softs.

I think the biggest step in the right direction lies in the hands of Windows Vista. And what protection it offers from the off, already set up, and easy to use. Not in what is later released in service pack 19, because, again, to the general populace, this will never touch their PC. They'll buy a computer, be baffled by it for six months (because it doesn't behave in the same way as their previous machine) eventually start to feel comfortable with it, only for the machine to slowly grind to a halt, till, two or three years later, they go through the whole process again.

The presentation is also pants. And pretty damned rudimentary, aswell ~ the "identity theft" one being particularly crude.

Pah.

[Bob Crabtree]

Hoodi,

I hope you are right about Vista, but I know you are right about how many people feel about computers, though, perhaps, the situation is actually rather worse than you suggest.

Heck, it's bad enought trying to sort out the timer on a VCR or the kitchen cooker, never mind get your head around all the twaddle that computers require.

I remember the Microsoft commercial that used to appear on TV perhaps five or more years ago, showing a woman returning to work after having her kids grew up a bit. She sits at a PC and then, all on her own, figures out how to use a mouse and Windows' GUI - and gets going straight away.

Complete cobblers. Can't be done.

Oh, and let me tell you a little story - and this really is true.

From 1994 to 1997, I worked for myself doing a whole lot of different things, including IT consultancy for small business and even training kids (and parents) to use their computers in their own homes.

I went to one bloke's house and it took me more than 20 minutes to convince him that I knew the first thing about computers, on account of I tried to explain to him, from the off, that the way he'd been using a mouse was wrong.

I'd thought it would be unwise to delay telling him until half an hour in - but he struggled to believe that he wasn't doing it right, holding the mouse upside down in one hand, and moving the ball around with the other.

Not surprisingly his self-esteem was shot to hell, despite my handling him with kid gloves, and he never ask me to tutor him again.

During that period, it really made me sad to see how many of the people who called me had done so as a final resort - they had spent a LOT of money on their PCs, money that would have bought them a car or a decent holiday, and yet they were prepared to spend out more cos the next step was going to be sticking their PCs away in cupboards or trying to flog them off cheap.

They just could cope with them. The whole experience - understandably in my view - was a frustrating mystery, until someone sat down with them and helped clear the fog.

I started teaching myself about computers in the early 80s - because I wanted to. They seemed interesting to me (and still do).

But lots of people feel they have to learn about them to keep up and that hardly puts them in the right frame of mind to make the necessary effort - and a lot of effort, rather than a lot of skill or intelligence, is required to reach a stage where you can use computers comfortably and "safely".

And do you realise how many people, in an office environment in the UK, do actually have to start using PCs without any training? It's frightening.

Of course, more kids today get training of sorts at school - but generally, pretty poor training, judging from what I hear from my kids, and their friends, and also from my own personal knowledge of teachers (they're in the family, you understand) and the teaching environment in which they themselves get inadequate training about PCs.

But, returning to security, in my view, a lot of companies need to start take their responsibilities serious.

In the front line, I see the OS makers (and the makers of web browsers and email apps - whether or not they are the OS maker as well), the ISPs, the makers of computer hardware, and those who run web sites.

Companies such as McAfee really don't count - and can't reasonably be relied on - since, logically, if the security issues were resolved, they'd be ought of business.

Oh, and just for laughs, guess how many emails are trapped by my anti-spam filter every day (note, I didn't say, "correctly" trapped).


Bob