http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/microsoft_hidden_malware_costs_windows_7
A couple of stories have hit the headlines this year concerning the huge cost that some UK Local Governments incurred when dealing with malware attack on their Windows machines. If you missed them, Manchester City Council had a single USB infected with the infamous Conficker worm and it cost them — brace yourself — £1.5m ($2.4m) of which £1.2m (US$1.9m) was spent on IT, of which a staggering £600,000 (US$980k) went on consultancy fees including money to Microsoft. A while later, Ealing Borough Council were hit with a cost of £500000 (about US$ 800k) when they were also hit by a single USB stick containing conficker. Some in the industry tweeted and blogged this as being a “hidden cost of using Microsoft Windows”. In the ensuing discussion, many pointed out that the high cost was really due to the lack of a proper patching and disaster recovery policy at the council. So which is right? Is dealing with malware a hidden cost of using Windows or of a poor IT strategy?
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It has been argued that — particularly in the case of Manchester City Council — a weak patching policy and process is the real reason behind the cost of dealing with malware. Ealing Council were (in September 2009) still “planning to upgrade to Windows XP”. Taking my house-breaking analogy, this argument is like saying that leaving your window open is asking for trouble. Generally I agree but there are two issues here. The first is that you (the house owner) did not leave the window open. Rather the house builder installed the windows in such a way that they could be opened easily from the outside and worse: the walls and door are exactly the same! Permit me to switch analogies but if you are constantly plugging your fingers in to plug holes in the dam, you will eventually run out of fingers. The second issue is the idea that the applying the patch somehow secures your Windows system. It doesn’t. It just fixes that hole in your house. The house-breaker will now just try to find another one and you enter the game of hoping the broken window is spotted by the builder before the house-breaker and that the builder notifies you and supplies a patch in time.
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Originally posted by zeeblebotI bet windows 3 also has loads of issues for the freesoftware geeks to worry about.
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/microsoft_hidden_malware_costs_windows_7
A couple of stories have hit the headlines this year concerning the huge cost that some UK Local Governments incurred when dealing with malware attack on their Windows machines. If you missed them, Manchester City Council had a single USB infected with the infamous Conf ...[text shortened]... before the house-breaker and that the builder notifies you and supplies a patch in time.
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