Episode 38: Security Education for PC Users - Is it Pointless?

According to Stefan Gorling, a doctoral student at The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm,Sweden it is. After my initial disbelief that anyone could call education of any kind pointless, I settled down to read the CNET article that reported Gorling's comments at the Virus Bulletin Conference. He has a point...up to a point! From the perspective of an IT manager, he's probably right that no matter how many times he tells users on the network NOT TO OPEN THAT ATTACHMENT, they inevitably do it anyway...oops, they forgot! End users, he claims, are interested in using their computers to do their jobs and aren't the slightest bit interested in security. That's the IT department's job. OK, Stefan, you do have a point. Having been in that situation before as a tech in a local school district, I hear where you're coming from. I have to say, though, that for every user who made me want to take their mouse away there was another who was profoundly thankful that I shared some easy to follow security tips that helped them keep their PC free from pop-ups, spam and adware. I also dealt with the lack of support from management to take away computer privileges from purposely careless users. Users who don't have to pay for their carelessness rarely stop to think about what they were doing before they do it. Hey, Paige will fix it! I've learned over time that there will always be people who will want to keep applications that are proven security risks just because they like them...that is until their favorite security risk crashes their computers, then it's the fault of the technology department for not protecting them!

It seemed to have been the general consensus of the Coop Crew today that education is NOT pointless and actually plays a big part in keeping networks more secure; if not networks, then workstations in home situations that are connected to the Internet. When users are at home, they ARE the IT department! We did have a spirited discussion and even had comments to share from folks who weren't able to join us live online (Thanks Fritz and Mary Ellen) but wanted to put in their two cents worth for the benefit of the rest of us.

As always, we shared come Cool stuff with our listeners which I am repeating in this blog for those of you who couldn't join us:

• Cool Website of the Week: CurrentCodes.com - Visit this site before you complete an online checkout that gives you the option to enter a coupon code. You can search here and find hundreds of coupon codes used by online merchants. The item you're about to purchase just might have a coupon code listed!
• Cool Video of the Week: Marcus, the cat, meets Hewlett Packard, the printer - If you have a cat and if you use a printer (and it doesn't even have to be an HP) this video could very well look very familiar. Watch Marcus in action as he defeats HP's best efforts to print pages!
• Tip of the Week: Let Windows automatically generate strong password for your XP user accounts - If you can't think of anything besides your pet's name for a password, then let Windows help you out. Just remember, once Windows generates your strong new password, record it somewhere so you'll remember it...then eat the paper you wrote it on once you have it memorized!
• Cool Tool of the Week: VoIP handsets for Skype and Vonage - Gone are the days of heavy, clunky, VoIP handsets that have to be connected to your computer. Skype and Vonage are now offering handset that look like...well, handsets! If you've been thinking of switching to VoIP but haven't like the idea of being tethered to your computer in order to make calls, check these out!

You can also check out our Show Notes.

Once again, we've had to rearrange our podcasting schedule to accommodate our personal schedules. Friday at 9am CST still works. Every two weeks still works. What doesn't work are the Friday's we picked to podcast SO we're switching them. That means our next live show will be on Friday, November 17. You'd better not miss this one because Kristi and I are going to share our Christmas Wish Lists and you can be sure there will be all kinds of cool tekkie gadgets on it. We're even going to tell you what we DON'T want to find in our stockings! Join us and share your own wish lists. Should we draw names this year, or what?