I always enjoyed watching Muhammad Ali battle his opponents; he was so sure-footed. He not only had the dexterity of a great boxer, but defeat to others came by way of his psychological prowess, and his uncanny ability to socially engineer his battle field, making it ready for his opponent to fall victim to. He left us with the impression he was unbothered by what others thought, because he felt that what he had was a gift.

Some of course would disagree, but I want to use Ali to illustrate another kind of battle we engage in, located in the World Wide Web ring. We engage with people who are very adept, some who are social engineering professionals, who do not seem to be bothered by what they do, or by what others think, and who believe have a great gift. It seems with each round, we get deeper into their lair. Ding, ding. Round one, round two…knock down. We get back up and…knockdown. In my conversations with many of those I fix computers for, I have come to discover what prevents them from putting on the “protective armor” that security experts tell each of us to wear. These “garments” are not difficult to put on, and believe me, I am no security expert, but I do know that in seven years of having my own home network, I have received three viruses—one fatal enough to reformat my PC. I am not a programmer, nor a wiz-kid. So why do so many people live at the mercy of these bright code experts who need another fix for their campaigns? We have the tools, we are not without common sense, we make a living and pay our bills, we have the things John Doe next door has, and we are angered when we receive a virus on our computers. In fact we feel violated, as if a thief in the night robbed us of our hard-earned possessions. Yet, even after all that, we remain unconvinced to load our weapons. Wouldn’t we put a lock on our front door if someone uninvited walked in?

I want to tell you that the number one reason statistically, that I have personally encountered, is that folks just want to turn on their PCs and not worry about things that do not immediately interest them. ‘I just want to get up in the morning and read my mail’; I go to the stock pages, and get information on my new business venture’. ‘I need an airplane ticket to Denver right away; my daughter is getting married, and she just told me’. When I explained to one person the importance of taking the time to insure against security holes, he said, “might as well take the whole thing and throw it into the ocean; we are just going back to what we always had. I cannot believe I have to spend as much time doing what I don’t want to do, in order to have the time to do what I do want to do’. Well Microsoft, there you have it! Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to make a perfect and flawless software system.