🚀 go-pugleaf

In V3 N1 of Virus-L Digest, William Hugh Murray wrote:

>2. The press speculation about the DATACRIME virus was much more
>damaging than the virus.

For the sake of academic argument I would dispute this.  I agree that the
actual damage from Datacrime (or Oct 13 or whatever) was minimal, and
virtually nonexistent on our campuses, and I would also agree that there
was mucho media hype.  However, I really think that there was a major
benefit to all of this.

As Mr. Murray correctly pointed out, much more users damage their own
data than are damaged by 'nasty' software.  The Oct 13 scare made our users,
who number in the tens of thousands,  FINALLY listen to our pleadings
to make backup copies of their software and data.

The situation is similar to that with seat belts.  Few of us are actually
in an accident, but if we see one (or the effects) it may cause us to wear
the belts, which *may* save our lives.  In the case of the Oct 12  virus
we had one grand  chance to get people to listen to our message regarding
making backups and preparing for the chance of disaster, whether by
accident, ignorance, hardware failure or 'nasty' software.

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|   |        gerry santoro, ph.d.  --  center for academic computing      |   |
| -(*)-  penn state university -- gms@psuvm.psu.edu -- gms@psuvm.bitnet -(*)- |
|   |             standard disclaimer -->  "I yam what I yam"             |   |
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