Virus Warning!

How I long for the day when they start producing virus filters for the brain. The human mind is the major chink in the armour of most protection systems. Computer viruses have been a fact of life for many years, but a lot of users are still so easily taken in by things that wouldn’t fool the rest of us for a nanosecond. I mention this because my wife was gulled by an e-mail virus so transparently obvious that I am still shaking my head in disbelief.

If you dig around in the archives, you will discover that my wife is something of a technophobe, so her use of the home computer is generally restricted to reading and sending e-mail. Her complete disinterest is great from one point of view, because I can clutter up the hard-drive with porn and games to my heart’s content. The major drawback is her touching innocence with regard to the myriad cyber-rapists out there and their continual efforts to violate our PC. Despite many dire warnings not to open any e-mail attachments whatsoever, she still has a tendency to believe the bullshit. As a consequence, I had to spend a goodly time last night disinfecting the damned PC.

Last night’s attack came in the form of a message supposedly from one of her friends. The content of the message was: “You have to check this out. Don’t worry, it’s safe. I’ve scanned it and it doesn’t have any viruses”. My dear spouse probably thought, “Oh, that must be all right then. I’m certainly convinced. Let me just double-click that EXE thingy, because I trust every unsigned e-mail I receive. Strange – all hell seems to be breaking loose. What’s that funny noise? What does ‘Virus Alert’ mean? Oh well, I suppose I’d better call hubby now – my work here is done”.