On 6/9/10 8:43 AM, Michiel Klaver wrote:
Our experiences from the Dutch ISP market indicate otherwise, customers
are more than happy to be informed they might have been infected by a
virus/worm. Most customers are too afraid of loosing valuable documents
due to a file-eating virus for example, or afraid of loosing connection
to the internet entirely and appreciate it to get an opportunity to do
some clean-up when placed in quarantaine vlan. They even will recommend
you, and your reputation as ISP-with-clue will increase.
Unfortunately, here in the US, as someone who decrapifies computers for
several home and business users, I find that no matter how much I alert
users to infections, they just don't care.
They say...
"But I can still use my computer! You're just trying to get more money
out of me."
You warn them that opening attachments is dangerous.
They say...
"But I got this great power point presentation that shows me how to make
cookies on the hood of my car, which I would have never seen had I
listened to you!"
You warn them that the screen saver they just downloaded and ran sent
their passwords and credit cards to a cracker.
They say...
"Oh, but my credit card company won't hold me liable, so it's not a big
deal."
They install MyCleanPC or similar, which proceeds to install more
crapware which eventually starts randomly deleting important files on
their computer.
They say...
"But I saw it on TV, and people were saying its a great product that
makes my 386 perform like a Core i7! Your a computer expert, I'm sure
you've backed up my files on your computer without me needed to tell you."
Yeah, things may be different overseas, but here in the US, ignorance is
bliss and endorsed by the GOP and Tea Party. Here, people take pride in
being the dumbest moron on the block.
In all cases of the above, I was told almost that exact statement by a
customer. They will do _anything_ to try and avoid responsibility for
their behavior.
--
Brielle Bruns
The Summit Open Source Development Group
http://www.sosdg.org / http://www.ahbl.org
