Virus Scares and False Authority Syndrome

Fifth of Five writes: "Ran across this article on the IS-IT-TRUE.org site regarding False Authority Syndrome and the spread of virus misinformation by the media, users and Folks Who Probably Ought To Know Better. If you've ever watched the TV news and gritted your teeth over what is being presented as 'fact' this may shine some light on just how it got to be like this."

Comments

Re:Here it comes

[feed_me_cereal]

Yeah I do.
(chough...bible..chough).

Problem is obvious

[Wind_Walker]

It's the obvious problem that comes up whenever the Internet is used. The very nature of the beast is that anonymity is virtually assured. I can go online and make a Hotmail account and claim to be Joe Blow who graduated from Harvard at the age of 16, and nobody can prove me otherwise (at least, not easily)

Whenever you have a medium that is so completely anonymous, you're going to have problems proving credibility. After all, IPs can be spoofed, so if I trace a Virus e-mail back to the alledged sender and it comes up at an address at McAffee, I'm likely to believe that the virus is true, when it was just spoofed.

What we need is some kind of identification verification procedure online. Not only would this destroy the virus scares, but it would also limit spam and help to track down child molestors. I'm all for tying real-life identities to online personas because it would mean accountability for actions, and if you've been in an IRC chat room recently, you know how stupid people can be when there are no repercussions for their actions.

Here it comes

[steveo777]

Flamebait me if you want, Offtopic as it be, but don't you hate it when all sorts of Theories are tought as fact (chough...darwin..chough).