5 years ago... Email humour spreads a little unhappiness

05.10.99: The distribution of joke emails at work is creating a major virus headache for IT managers, according to security specialist Panda Software.

A survey has revealed that 54 per cent of UK employees are using email to send joke or gimmicky messages and attachments to friends and colleagues.

The root of the problem, according to Panda, is a distinct lack of awareness among participants that many joke emails contain viruses.

05.10.04: Can you believe how naïve everybody was five years ago - clicking on viruses and sending potentially hazardous emails to colleagues. Still they were crazy days and we've all learned our lesson now haven't we.

Haven't we? No of course not - employees and their inability to avoid clicking on tempting attachments is still the single biggest headache for those charged with keeping a network secure.

It's that mindset that virus writers rely upon and that gave rise to the phenomenon of 'social engineering' the awareness on the part of virus writers that a good 'hook' was all they needed to get users to launch their virus attack - cue pictures of naked celebrities that were really viruses, secret shots from behind enemy lines that were really viruses and song files that, you guessed it, were really viruses.

Will users ever learn? Probably not - it seems human error is the one weak link in the chain that will never be strengthened in the crackdown on network insecurity.