CERTStation Threat-Level Aggregator

sloit writes "Just spotted, the CERTStation Threat level Aggregator displays the current threat level, in real-time, as assessed by 8 of the Internet's leading vulnerability watch services such as Symantec Threatcon, ISS Alertcon and SANS Infocon on one publically accessible Web page. Well, that saves a lot of daily trudging!"

Comments

If it would only just *tell* me

[milo_a_wagner]

Fine, fine, I guess. But with all those flicks and ticks and whooshes, isn't this the most annoyingly designed page *ever*? I can barely see anything. I think I'm about to have an epileptic fit, and I'm not epileptic.

Flash and gravity

[Toby The Economist]

> the CERTStation Threat level Aggregator displays the current threat level,

Well, it does if you have Flash installed.

Which makes the page 100% useless to all those who do not.

Making a page useless to a proportion of your viewers, in exchange for (supposedly!) looking better, is a poor exchange; even more so when you consider that Flash sites in practise often violate user-interface guidelines and are a nightmare for users.

My view is that the larger the number of people involved, the more strongly the decisions taken gravitate towards the worst possible choice.

This is why they have Flash on their site.

If just one reasonably talented bloke had been given responsibility for the site, it would, I think, be likely to be useable and functional.

Virus checker companies

[sdo1]

Companies that make their business on selling virus checking software will almost always over-exaggerate the threat. I'd be shocked to see Symantec and McAfee show anything much lower than their showing (yellow). It is in their best interest to keep the perception of impending doom alive and well.

-S