If some of the major companies and organizations cared to tighten up their network and increased surveillance on their computers, I would get less junk mail ?

Well that is an enlightening thought. It's kind of depressing to think that, of all the business computers out there, it's the ones with the best in support and infrastructure abilities that are not doing their share to combat spam and lock down their network.

How are small and medium businesses supposed to cope if the big guys can't show the way ?

Pascal.

the traditional view of military supremacy has always been 'mine is bigger than yours', but no longer. the pressure is now on the generals to keep that cannon hard and ready all night long...

But of course, we knew this sort of thing was going on for decades. The US military relied solely on the anti-virus industry for its IT protection, and they made the "precautionary disconnect" as ubiquitous as CTRL-ALT-DEL.

http://www.vmyths.com/column/1/2001/8/2/

We can only hope that the recent shift in US government desktop security will stop this in the future:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/22/us_common_security_config/

Or will it?

http://www.vmyths.com/column/1/2002/6/24/

Delta Force Skunk Works ...... Virtual Forces Stumbling along....

What Manual are they Following? Is IT Current to Future needs?

I don't think so.

I wonder what they'll do when (LOL - *if*) they ever catch the people behind the bot networks who have "maliciously" planted unauthorised code on a military machine.

At least in Gary's defence, he can say he was only looking - these bot controllers have gone beyond simple password hacking.

Can anyone believe they run Windoze on those desktops? Surely you jest.

I dare say if they ran a naturally resistant OS, they might have many less problems with compromise. MacOS, Linux, etc., anything but that insecure piece of garbage.

Open standards would also make it easy to switch to other platforms if need be to stay ahead of the bad guys.

-Tim