Thanks very much Nick, for informing this useful thread.
Nick Rout wrote:
Thanks Rik, FWIW the full text of what I sent is:
"The internet society & your report this morning fail to mention that there is only one operating system that is subject to the security problems you reported on - namely Mocrosoft Windows. Although all computer users must be wary of security issues, the users of Linux, BSD and Apple's MacOS X can relax about the threats of spyware, keyboard loggers etc. Experiments have shown that the average Windows computer is compromised within 10 minutes of going online to the internet.
By the way people who compromise other computer systems fraudulently are not hackers, they are crackers. To quote a popular definition "The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them". http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is";
However they only read out:
"The internet society & your report this morning fail to mention that there is only one operating system that is subject to the security problems you reported on - namely Microsoft Windows. Experiments have shown that the average Windows computer is compromised within 10 minutes of going online to the internet."
FWIW, a tip to share gleaned from student protest days..
When dealing with newsmedia, it's optimal to employ their mode of thinking: the 8-second soundbyte [sic; approx.].
That is, one has no more than a sentence or two at the most, in which to get one's message across.
So our emphasis as advocates must be to refine and simplify that message, having it ready for these rare opportunities to articulate it. Good on you for initiating discussion Nick.
Thank heavens they didn't publicly laugh at my spelling mistake (Mocrosoft).
We all fall into that one, periodically :-)
-- Richard Tindall InfoHelp Services
