Eric Lee: Mydoom as a class issue

British Labour blogger Eric Lee delves into the class dimension of viruses and virus protection:

...computer viruses are increasingly becoming a class issue. ...author of the Mydoom virus which is now racing around the net deliberately chose to target home users rather than corporate, government or military users. Home users are 'soft targets' for virus writers. They often barely understand the computer that they have purchased....

And then there's anti-virus software. Buy a new computer and you will probably get something installed with it. But if you don't pay to renew the license, you don't get protection....

Home users suffer both a lack of funds and a lack of knowledge and they are increasingly the intended target of malicious attacks like Mydoom. They are also, increasingly, working class people. The very rich will have the latest and best anti-virus software on their machines. They will be accessing the net through secure corporate networks, behind firewalls, and will rarely be exposed to problems. And if they do have a problem, they simply ring up the folks in the IT department who will come and fix it.

The answer?

Unions should be promoting open source software like Mozilla, Open Office and Linux because it is free and because it is more secure. They should be partnering with software companies to distribute inexpensive (or free) tools to members that will protect their investments in their home computers. Tools like ZoneAlarm (a free firewall), anti-virus software, and programs like MailWasher Pro that allow users to preview their email on servers, downloading to their computers only emails that they know they want to read. Unions have an interest in keeping their members online -- meaning that we have an interest in keeping them virus-free as well.