Won’t get fooled again; The graying of IT; We live in a beta world; Hackers slow Internet root servers with attack
Won’t get fooled again
I logged in yesterday morning, and a little window popped up saying winlogin had an error. OK, Windows gets errors, no big deal — so I clicked yes to report it to Microsoft, then clicked on the details link on the error reporting window. Then, a Microsoft Web page pops up saying, “Virus alert: Windows detected the Winlogon Trojan/Worm virus on your computer.” OK, a trojan/worm virus — what, three in one? The link on that page goes to Windows Live OneCare and it’s apparently a ruse to try and get you to purchase OneCare. This is so less than helpful in today’s world.
Of course, there was nothing on my PC — it had updated to the latest McAfee dats and done a full scan the night before, and SpyBot found nothing.
Jonathan Klay
Newport, Ore.
The graying of IT
Regarding Linda Musthaler’s column, “The graying of the IT workforce”: Great article. Now, if those 30-something hiring managers would just get a clue. There are still far too many who think that someone 50 or over doesn’t belong in IT, won’t/can’t keep up, learn new skills, whatever. At 50, if you lose your job in IT, you’re through. You have to go into consulting, government work, management, or something else entirely. It’s still a self-fulfilling prophecy.
John Boyd
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Linda Musthaler is absolutely correct that companies should start to prepare the future IT workforce. Several commentators have talked about this, but what strikes me is that in focusing on keeping people, mentoring and building skills (all of which are important), many commentators leave out the critical step of documentation. Let’s face it, most IT organizations simply don’t document very well. As the “gray hairs” start looking at retirement, organizations will see massive amounts of knowledge walk out the door because it only exists in the gray matter between a retiree’s ears. The key knowledge was never documented, or it was but now no one knows how to find it.
Another reason IT documentation is critical is the generational changes in the workforce. One common trait of Gen Y and millennials (those graduating college now), is that their loyalty to a particular organization is decreased compared with Boomers and even Gen Xers. The next generation of the workforce doesn’t plan on spending 10 to 15 years with the same company; they saw their parents get let go after being loyal to a single organization and they’ve vowed it won’t happen to them.
With the increase in bodies walking out the door (for whatever reason), organizations need to recognize the criticality of documenting their IT operations and keeping that documentation current and accessible. Creating, updating and reviewing needs to be built into the very fabric of daily IT operations and should not be viewed as an afterthought.
Via e-mail
Kill the fatted cash cow
Regarding Mark Gibbs’ BackSpin column, “We live in a beta world”: I completely agree, but there is one sticky issue that I can’t quite fit into this philosophy: cash cow software. That is, software that is on Version 14 or whatever that has been around for a long time, and evolution of its features and usability has decreased logarithmically. The only reason its vendor keeps releasing upgrades is for the income. Often by that point, the software has become bloated and is a long way from its original purpose.
Dan Wakeman
Information Systems
AES Cayuga
Lansing, N.Y.
An ounce of prevention
Regarding “Hackers slow Internet root servers with attack”: Why is it people don’t realize that by not properly protecting their systems, they are actually helping cyber-criminals pull off scenarios such as this?
People should understand that if an attack were more severe, it could hamper their day-to-day business. Their e-mails may be delayed or dropped, their Web surfing could be slowed or stopped, mass pandemonium could erupt and create problems of epic proportions. Or we could just sit back, go have a cup of coffee and wait for the Internet to “warm up.”
Why can’t the news wires pick this up and announce to the world public how important it is to clean their systems?
Thomas Raef
Founder
e-Based Security
Wilmette, Ill.
