Computer viruses slow African expansion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/12/ethiopia-computer-virus

by davecardwell • 17 years ago

24 15 17 years ago

guardian.co.uk

There are a litany of economical, cultural, geographical, and other issues at play here. Plenty of opportunities for enterprising startups to solve problems.

troels3• 17 years ago

Unfortunately not much money to gain from it.

smithjchris• 17 years ago

Just like Aids....

jseliger• 17 years ago

Not to turn this into a Slashdot thread, but I find it puzzling that the article fails to mention Linux till the final paragraphs, then quotes someone who is either being taken out of context or is a moron: "Khokhar says it's no magic solution. "If you suddenly had an increase in Linux or Mac use in China, you'd find those two platforms are just as vulnerable.""

Er, no: if you compile from the source or use well-known downloads, it's pretty damn unlikely that you're going to have the same problems you have getting CS 4 from a Warez site.

elbenshira2• 17 years ago

I think what the article is saying is that if Linux or Mac OS X becomes more used, then you will begin to see viruses pop up on those platforms. Of course, I would argue that it's harder to find/write/distribute exploits for a unix system than windows.

likpok4• 17 years ago

This was clearly true of windows pre-vista. Post-vista windows, it may not be so much. The vista security model is a very different beast (assuming the same quality of user).

ckinnan• 17 years ago

The Ubuntu distro was founded by a South African, Mark Shuttleworth.

elbenshira2• 17 years ago

What an interesting problem. Unfortunately, the problem is not the anti-virus software, but a general lack of technological knowledge, which is expected for a developing country.

Moving to a "more secure" OS (i.e. Linux) would be a good solution. This will result in computing legitimacy (less pirating) and viruses. I doubt the normal student or government worker (or anyone, really) need that super-advanced feature on Microsoft Word.

Yet unfortunately, once again, there are bigger problems in Africa than lack of technology. Fix the government corruption problem first, and things will start falling into place.

likpok4• 17 years ago

I don't use office software much. However, Word is much, much nicer than OpenOffice. Even for basic editing. If people are doing almost anything more complicated than the basic text document, they can use the well-researched UI.

Whether that is worth the price tag is up to them.

Computer viruses slow African expansion

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