Cisco CSO Says Antivirus Money "Completely Wasted"

mernil writes with an excerpt that kicks off a story at ZDNet Australia: "Companies are wasting money on security processes — such as applying patches and using antivirus software — which just don't work, according to Cisco's chief security officer John Stewart. Speaking at the AusCERT 2008 conference in the Gold Coast yesterday, Stewart said the malware industry is moving faster than the security industry, making it impossible for users to remain secure."

Comments

Re:Agreed

[Z34107]

Let's ignore the fact that minimum wages generally don't work as intended, that most people working minimum wage jobs are teenagers and secondary wage earners, and that significant increases in minimum wage also cause unemployment. (Figures are in a ~3 year old dead tree source, will dig it out when my library is put away.)

The problem is we have two conflicting ideas. One: That minimum wage should provide a "living wage" - otherwise, why have it? Two: That one should be able to make a living at minimum wage jobs.

Take the classical example: Flipping burgers at McDonalds. Unskilled, menial labor. Anyone willing to get literally and figuratively burned can do it. It adds little value to the finished product, other than "those burgers won't cook themselves." If McDonalds had to pay every 16 year old $30k with insurance, what do you think would happen to the dollar meal? McDonalds simply would not be able to stay in business until those burgers could cook themselves - we're looking at completely mechanizing the chains and having only one worker. Burgers are more expensive; there's more unemployment. Lose-lose.

This is a contrived example, but a minimum/living wage applies this nationally to everything we buy. For some jobs, it is simply not possible to justify hiring a person above a certain wage. Tweak the minimum wage to a "living" wage, and we see massive unemployment as those positions are terminated. Tweak it up a "little" so our congresscritters can feel warm and fuzzy, and you've laid off a few teenagers and generally accomplished nothing.

Point of my rambling: There are some jobs which will never, ever provide you (or a family!) with a decent standard of living. It has nothing to do with the minimum wage - if you assemble 50 widgets at a factory that each sell for a $.50 profit, do you think it is possible for them to pay you more than $25 an hour (and that if they ignore taxes, paying other salaries, maintaining equipment, buying new machines, and all other expenses)?

And, guess what happens to our contrived, fictional position of widget-maker if you set the minimum wage to $26 an hour? Economic realities are harsh - if you could legislate a standard of living, Congress could set the minimum wage at a billion dollars an hour and everyone would be happy.

Re:Agreed

[Mateo_LeFou]

Wine is a gaming environment and for legacy software, I would not recommend it for anything else.

FYP