Still regardless it is time to run an anti virus suite in 2012 regardless of OS.
I know the AV companies have an alterior motive here, but it is true. Flashback is gaining more and more users by the day and Mac users are more dangerous because they feel they are immune and have no idea they are infected. Even if some malware is Windows only it should not be on any mac or linux box.
If I were a malware writter I would target MacOSX. Why? The users are idiots who do not run anti virus software, many are not auto updated and old (because of the price), and Windows users know better to click on shit and almost all have anti virus software that can detect my code fast. Apple users are higher income users too so its more money for me to steal.
Linux boxes are rooted often too. The worms are just different and are designed to host fake web ads or setup phising servers. Linux users feel supperior and that they are immune so they never check or run anti virus software.
Downplaying by even suggesting... well its WIndows only makes the problem worse. Its time to get the elite anti Windows attitude away in 2012 where 15% of US internet enabled computers are macs.
All you had to do was view a site in Safari and even under a regular user account you were 0wned even if you did not click the "upgrade flash now" button. Of course damage was more limited and could be easily removed by deleting and recreating the user account taht way versus running as admin, but still.
Even with the latest patch more mac users are getting infected by the day. The latest varient now runs silently without any interaction from the user at all.
Memory corruption bugs are evil. They can even bypass user security totally and simply run around the check.
I'd wager the majority of the Windows malware "infections" are trojan exes from shitty porn sites.
The majority are from flash and java and javascript exploits by driveby downloads from infected servers or ads. Infact slashdot hosted a virus by a fake virgin mobile ad 3 weekends ago.
Thank God I ran Avast!. If you are one of those types who feels they are virii free who are running Windows and reading this, well your system is 0wned if you came here 3 weekends ago. Oops
Apple is easier to target for malware writters anyway because their users typically do not run anti virus software and feel safe clicking on shit anyway because the genius at the Apple Store said they are secure.
Windows users know better and have anti virus software and run Windows 7 (hopefully if they are home users) with full updates.
Not fud at all. If Oracle wins and its ruled that a clean room seperate implementation that just *looks like java* is copy rightable then Oracle will own IcedTea.
Oracle would well be within its power afterwards to cancel free java then require an expensive Oracle database license for icedtea use for your emoloyer. Scary stuff!
This assumes businesses bother to upgrade. There is a lot of shitware out there. Software just coming out today requiring IE 7, XP, and some still only works in Windows 98 but it only runs in Windows 98 because of some band aids made to it because it runs best under Windows 3.11 etc.
The solution was to switch to internet cloud apps. Now they require IE 6 still and we have the same problem all over again and accountants who get bonuses by saying wait IE 6 works fine, I can still view cnn with it and therefore the web will still support it for free. Why switch?
I am hoping html 5 and cloud apps will change this. We have standards now but it wont surprise me to see people tying it in with bad code. No one would have thought 10 years ago that IE 6 would be as proprietary as the VB apps they replaced.
If your just learning to code. Obviously its not a real server with real server hardware. Then you run an enterprise OS like Windows Server with real server hardware.
But also remember that your tablet/netbook is only $199. Would you be willing to pay double for this on such low end hardware that will die within a year or two anyway? That is what Android runs on and who Windows competes agaisnt.
My theory is MS is planning to move away from Active Directory and is showing signs of doing that with Hotmail account tie ins. Maybe a corporate account email tie in with Exchange 2012 could upload certain applications and policies?.
I was dumbfounded myself when I found out AD is not part of WOA as I thought they went off the deep end. But I can see where they are coming from after I migrated some sales people who work from home to Windows 7 all locked down who can't ever get anti virus or Windows updates. I asked the client if I could kick them off the domain myself and just give them a stippend for IT work from a local shop. They refused.
I hate AD as I view it as another bad MS product right there with IE 6 and Exchange. This would be a godsend actually as it makes things simply. If there is a problem just reset/restore the pad and just log in with your email account again.
Times are changing. People are working from home, on the road, and from other devices that are wireless. How does IT manage it? They can't. AD is static and not tablet or work from home family.
The fact that these enterprises are still using IE 6 and 7 are showing the problem. They can't leave as it is unmanageable if you have 5,000 people in 4 continents.
Windows 8 solution is to simply reset it to a previous state. That might work fine for every problem if all your data is on the cloud anyway. WinRT helps this. Zdnet (Windows troll I know) had an article demonstrating this.
I think a new manageability services that work with a hotmail or office365 account that can be managed over the internet might be an excellent replacement. Standard desktops frozen in time are the worst for everyone and become hard to manage as you lock them down.
There are great IT features on Windows 8. Just on the x86 ones. If it were not for Metro Windows 8 would be a great desktop upgrade. Virtualization support is very strong.
It seems WOA is crippled because either 1. Win32/64 has some x86 specific code 2. MS can't sell Windows 8 WOA for $199 if the tablet is only worth $250. Especially if MS wants it to be competitive with Android. 3. WinRT is battery efficient and this is important. Many researchers still use TRS-80s because they get 20 hours of battery life believe it or not when they are in the middle of nowhere like the Alaska Aleutian Islands 4. Domain joining simply is not practical as its static. I have made a lot of angry sales people who are joined to a domain and can't get Windows or Anti virus updates because they only go to an office once a year. I begged the IT director to kick them off the domain and give them a stripend for local IT support if they fuck them up. She didn't want to hear it.
My guess is 2,3,4 are the reasons. MS has demonstrated you can manage them without a domain. This example showed corporate apps on a non joined Windows 8 tablet.
Active Directory needs to go. Its a POS. Novel clearly had the better product and in a world of wireless communication outside the office it just does not fly. My guess is Windows 9 will include just that and give corporate America a reason to finally leave XP behind, and Windows 7 by then will be aging as well.
MS wants to charge a fortune for Active Directory integration and for enterprise customers. Plain and simple.
I disliked MS a lot when I created this account hence my name 11 years ago.
However, I will say recently MS has got a lot better (with the exception of metro). MS tried go the route with BoB, clippy, and the whole garbage of MS products like MS Dogs (actual product) in CompUSA back in the 1990s.
Windows 7 has saved search results, can organize many Windows at once, and do things for productive people that is not deducing your intelligence at all. It seems though they are returning that route with Metro sadly.
Oh come on DNS-andBind, Metro is so user friendly with so many hints and useful design paradigms to make it simple to use.
I am sure people are going to take one look at it and be in ohh and ahhh for its glory and be dumping their dependable Windows 7 machines for this new workflow that works so well with multi monitors and running several apps at a time and be so much more simple than an IPAD.
I have no issue at all with XP in these circumstances. They just should not be used on the internet and internet explorer needs to be disabled on them. A threat to the net and user is key if these machines are ever connected. Lets also think of us who want a better web with css 3 and html 5 with no flash. Developers cant use it asIE 7 & 8 support from these dinosaurs are needed.
Windows and even IE has been getting harder and harder to crack in after the laughing bad issue with XP pre SP1 and IE 6. Windows 7 has ASLR, DEP with all services, special VC2010 exception checking at runtime executable support, and sanboxing. Windows 8 and IE 10 have 2 sandboxes to get an exploit pass.
Ask any enterprise who migrated from XP to Windows 7 and they all say a drop in malware and virus infections is the first thing they notice.
Maybe MacOSX is an easier target?
The fact that most MacOSX users do not run anti virus software is also troubling. I say its essential now as a good one will look at behaviors and sandbox critical files and processes. Avast has a beta for MacOSX already if you hate Norton.
I think many people who assume they are invulnerable and have older macs probably have no clue they are even infected. I am curious what the percentage of older MacOSX installations are? Not everyone can afford or want to buy an expensive iMac/Powerbook every 3 years.
My issue is Macs are expensive and therefore mac users do not upgrade as often. The old Mac argument was that a PC would go obsolete in 3 years while mac users will use their machines for 7 years or more and still get support.
MacOSX does not get updates if you are just a few years old. Many people buy used macbooks because of the price and are getting let out. Many do not even know they are not supported.
I hope you are right about Apple. They should at least let their users know to upgrade for the latest security threats... assuming you can if you are first generation intel owners or powerpc.
I haven't seen any in years. The ones I see come with Windows 7 starter edition. I did work at a PC shop as early as the summer of 2010 where all we sold were used machines upgraded with more ram that have XP on them. Windows 7 was still new and cool at the time for those with huge 4 gigs of ram but those days are over.
If you do not click on it, it is malware and will use a memory corruption bug to infect your account. You can delete your account to delete it. If you do click on it the malware turns into a deadlier trojan that runs as administrator and is more difficult to remove.
Most malware these days regardless of type target multiple vulnerabilities. Since IE and Chrome have a sandbox... what is up with Firefox not having one?... you need to first get past the sanbox. After that target something in Windows and a bonus if you can do it as a standard user to infect an administrative service or permission on a file. So they use several techniques.
Many infect your machine then use a backdoor installer to do more damage after penetrating the systems defenses so in essence they download and execute trojans
I have more sympathy for those who blew $2,000 for an iMac only to be dumped in 3 years vs those in 2009 got a $199 netbook special with XP. 4 to 5 years support for these low end users sounds reasonable. Apple dropped them like a hot potato. Jobs even broke his own promise of supporting powerPC users for 5 more years.
So many corporate users and those who took our advice not to use Vista, and that XP was GOD wont leave. It is like XP became the pinnacle and gold standard in cannon on what the PC is for these people.
Of course it would help if companies like Cisco actually supported newer browsers besides IE 6 and 7. It forces these companies in. 20 million by 2014 will still be on XP or more vs just 500k with old macs will be a big challenge and will get nasty. I think this is a taste of what is to come.
If I were an evil credit card hacker I would write the ultimate new code red and wait until 1 day after MS ends all support and then have a field day getting rich. MS wont do anything about it until I have a few billion in stolen money. Like a license, unsupported machines should not be on the world wide web and need to be disabled. XP users will come out with pitchforks and flaming torches with an army of lawyers sadly.
10.5 makes up 16.5% of Mac users, sure a lot are on PPC and the Flashback isn't targeting it, or is it?
Also about 4-5% are still on 10.4%
Apple didn't issue Diginotar Root certs fixes for these older OS X version neither.
Come when 10.8 is released, a whopping 65% of Mac users on 10.4-10.6 will be ripe for the pickings
Because Apple only updates the last two OS X versions in circulation, then is now releasing a new OS X version every year.
Microsoft on the other hand issues updates for their OS for 10 years?
Mac's a better value? Less prone to malware? Not for too much longer...
... and yet I find it hilarious when I read all the angry rants on wired.com and here on how poor old XP is going to lose support in 2 years a mere 13.5 years after launch.
This dwells into the more serious issue of the security nightmare that will come when all internet enabled computers that are more used like XP become abandonded. Personally I think it would be a good idea to disable port 80 on all devices 3 months after support ends to keep the upcoming security nightmare. It will anger many users but many malware writters will target XP if MacOSX has so many infections yet remains so small marketshare wise still. We do not allow vehicles with rags for a gas cap to go on the road right?
I understand Apple losses money to support users but something should be done. If not after a few billion lost dollars in bank accounts will create some nasty lawsuits.
The problem is that is the attitude for 70% of the fortune 500 companies. Not just a few isolated companies. Its hard to write a business case where the risks are non tangible and cant have an exact number in Excel. Savings are tangible and can be shown.
Worse Wall street loves these CEOs as they cause variation which their HFT supercomputers can short. They make money either way and a large increase and fall of shareprice makes the investors happy. Not long term growth
I started a flamewar a few times with that argument here that sales make money you cost money. Therefore you should not get paid that much etc.
But in a very large enterprise you get efficiency by leaving 2 million line excel spreadsheets all over the network to a centralized database program. ERP saves time and money instead of hiring a bunch of college kids to call people and ask questions when a remote internet/intranet app integrated can solve this saving money. What about about increased security and reliability by switching from IE 6 to IE 10/Windows Server 2012?
What about demand forecasting and inventory management?
The CEOs who made it by cutting costs and only using Excel as accountants before their promotions do not see this. It is pennywide but dollar dumb to not view technology as it is so used so much in large environments. No one ever got ahead by cutting costs, not investing, and trying to win by staying behind. The problem lies both with GAAP being viewed as set stone and a holy grail. And CEOs where were former Finance and Accounting gurus who in the past were not made CEOs and who use GAAP rather than common sense for every business decision.
Its like a cookie cutter these days if you watch TV shows like UnderCover Boss. Everytime they go undercover they say "I will look for ways to find cost over runs and find inefficiences" only to find angry underpaid and overworked employees and costs going up due to too little investment by the cheapstakes in the corporate headquarters.
One of these days another code red will come that will take down corporations causing billions in damages that will be all using IE 6/XP after 2014. The damage will not be hit to those who are already modern and then the real costs of being outdated will show. You do not see companies who have vechicles with 200k miles or machines that are well past their live still in production? Yet their computer systems are. That is just plain stupid.
Slashdot Mirror
Still regardless it is time to run an anti virus suite in 2012 regardless of OS.
I know the AV companies have an alterior motive here, but it is true. Flashback is gaining more and more users by the day and Mac users are more dangerous because they feel they are immune and have no idea they are infected. Even if some malware is Windows only it should not be on any mac or linux box.
If I were a malware writter I would target MacOSX. Why? The users are idiots who do not run anti virus software, many are not auto updated and old (because of the price), and Windows users know better to click on shit and almost all have anti virus software that can detect my code fast. Apple users are higher income users too so its more money for me to steal.
Linux boxes are rooted often too. The worms are just different and are designed to host fake web ads or setup phising servers. Linux users feel supperior and that they are immune so they never check or run anti virus software.
Downplaying by even suggesting ... well its WIndows only makes the problem worse. Its time to get the elite anti Windows attitude away in 2012 where 15% of US internet enabled computers are macs.
Look up flashback?
All you had to do was view a site in Safari and even under a regular user account you were 0wned even if you did not click the "upgrade flash now" button. Of course damage was more limited and could be easily removed by deleting and recreating the user account taht way versus running as admin, but still.
Even with the latest patch more mac users are getting infected by the day. The latest varient now runs silently without any interaction from the user at all.
Memory corruption bugs are evil. They can even bypass user security totally and simply run around the check.
I'd wager the majority of the Windows malware "infections" are trojan exes from shitty porn sites.
The majority are from flash and java and javascript exploits by driveby downloads from infected servers or ads. Infact slashdot hosted a virus by a fake virgin mobile ad 3 weekends ago.
Thank God I ran Avast!. If you are one of those types who feels they are virii free who are running Windows and reading this, well your system is 0wned if you came here 3 weekends ago. Oops
Apple is easier to target for malware writters anyway because their users typically do not run anti virus software and feel safe clicking on shit anyway because the genius at the Apple Store said they are secure.
Windows users know better and have anti virus software and run Windows 7 (hopefully if they are home users) with full updates.
If the code never can run on Mac OS X, how can Mac OS X be infected? To Mac OS X, it'd just be a useless file full of some kind of data.
I surely hope your joking and being sarcastic?
Not fud at all. If Oracle wins and its ruled that a clean room seperate implementation that just *looks like java* is copy rightable then Oracle will own IcedTea.
Oracle would well be within its power afterwards to cancel free java then require an expensive Oracle database license for icedtea use for your emoloyer. Scary stuff!
Its liability. Retailors can be sued for unlawful imprisonment by obtaining shoplifters until police arrive even though they are not the government.
Whats to stop some jerk from suing his cell phone carrier for tracking his location and violating his rights to make a quick buck?
This assumes businesses bother to upgrade. There is a lot of shitware out there. Software just coming out today requiring IE 7, XP, and some still only works in Windows 98 but it only runs in Windows 98 because of some band aids made to it because it runs best under Windows 3.11 etc.
The solution was to switch to internet cloud apps. Now they require IE 6 still and we have the same problem all over again and accountants who get bonuses by saying wait IE 6 works fine, I can still view cnn with it and therefore the web will still support it for free. Why switch?
I am hoping html 5 and cloud apps will change this. We have standards now but it wont surprise me to see people tying it in with bad code. No one would have thought 10 years ago that IE 6 would be as proprietary as the VB apps they replaced.
Sure why not?
If your just learning to code. Obviously its not a real server with real server hardware. Then you run an enterprise OS like Windows Server with real server hardware.
But also remember that your tablet/netbook is only $199. Would you be willing to pay double for this on such low end hardware that will die within a year or two anyway? That is what Android runs on and who Windows competes agaisnt.
My theory is MS is planning to move away from Active Directory and is showing signs of doing that with Hotmail account tie ins. Maybe a corporate account email tie in with Exchange 2012 could upload certain applications and policies?.
I was dumbfounded myself when I found out AD is not part of WOA as I thought they went off the deep end. But I can see where they are coming from after I migrated some sales people who work from home to Windows 7 all locked down who can't ever get anti virus or Windows updates. I asked the client if I could kick them off the domain myself and just give them a stippend for IT work from a local shop. They refused.
I hate AD as I view it as another bad MS product right there with IE 6 and Exchange. This would be a godsend actually as it makes things simply. If there is a problem just reset/restore the pad and just log in with your email account again.
Active Directory is the problem.
Times are changing. People are working from home, on the road, and from other devices that are wireless. How does IT manage it? They can't. AD is static and not tablet or work from home family.
The fact that these enterprises are still using IE 6 and 7 are showing the problem. They can't leave as it is unmanageable if you have 5,000 people in 4 continents.
Windows 8 solution is to simply reset it to a previous state. That might work fine for every problem if all your data is on the cloud anyway. WinRT helps this. Zdnet (Windows troll I know) had an article demonstrating this.
I think a new manageability services that work with a hotmail or office365 account that can be managed over the internet might be an excellent replacement. Standard desktops frozen in time are the worst for everyone and become hard to manage as you lock them down.
There are great IT features on Windows 8. Just on the x86 ones. If it were not for Metro Windows 8 would be a great desktop upgrade. Virtualization support is very strong.
It seems WOA is crippled because either
1. Win32/64 has some x86 specific code
2. MS can't sell Windows 8 WOA for $199 if the tablet is only worth $250. Especially if MS wants it to be competitive with Android.
3. WinRT is battery efficient and this is important. Many researchers still use TRS-80s because they get 20 hours of battery life believe it or not when they are in the middle of nowhere like the Alaska Aleutian Islands
4. Domain joining simply is not practical as its static. I have made a lot of angry sales people who are joined to a domain and can't get Windows or Anti virus updates because they only go to an office once a year. I begged the IT director to kick them off the domain and give them a stripend for local IT support if they fuck them up. She didn't want to hear it.
My guess is 2,3,4 are the reasons. MS has demonstrated you can manage them without a domain. This example showed corporate apps on a non joined Windows 8 tablet.
Active Directory needs to go. Its a POS. Novel clearly had the better product and in a world of wireless communication outside the office it just does not fly. My guess is Windows 9 will include just that and give corporate America a reason to finally leave XP behind, and Windows 7 by then will be aging as well.
MS wants to charge a fortune for Active Directory integration and for enterprise customers. Plain and simple.
I disliked MS a lot when I created this account hence my name 11 years ago.
However, I will say recently MS has got a lot better (with the exception of metro). MS tried go the route with BoB, clippy, and the whole garbage of MS products like MS Dogs (actual product) in CompUSA back in the 1990s.
Windows 7 has saved search results, can organize many Windows at once, and do things for productive people that is not deducing your intelligence at all. It seems though they are returning that route with Metro sadly.
Oh come on DNS-andBind, Metro is so user friendly with so many hints and useful design paradigms to make it simple to use.
I am sure people are going to take one look at it and be in ohh and ahhh for its glory and be dumping their dependable Windows 7 machines for this new workflow that works so well with multi monitors and running several apps at a time and be so much more simple than an IPAD.
I have no issue at all with XP in these circumstances. They just should not be used on the internet and internet explorer needs to be disabled on them. A threat to the net and user is key if these machines are ever connected. Lets also think of us who want a better web with css 3 and html 5 with no flash. Developers cant use it asIE 7 & 8 support from these dinosaurs are needed.
Windows and even IE has been getting harder and harder to crack in after the laughing bad issue with XP pre SP1 and IE 6. Windows 7 has ASLR, DEP with all services, special VC2010 exception checking at runtime executable support, and sanboxing. Windows 8 and IE 10 have 2 sandboxes to get an exploit pass.
Ask any enterprise who migrated from XP to Windows 7 and they all say a drop in malware and virus infections is the first thing they notice.
Maybe MacOSX is an easier target?
The fact that most MacOSX users do not run anti virus software is also troubling. I say its essential now as a good one will look at behaviors and sandbox critical files and processes. Avast has a beta for MacOSX already if you hate Norton.
The article is here.
I think many people who assume they are invulnerable and have older macs probably have no clue they are even infected. I am curious what the percentage of older MacOSX installations are? Not everyone can afford or want to buy an expensive iMac/Powerbook every 3 years.
My issue is Macs are expensive and therefore mac users do not upgrade as often. The old Mac argument was that a PC would go obsolete in 3 years while mac users will use their machines for 7 years or more and still get support.
MacOSX does not get updates if you are just a few years old. Many people buy used macbooks because of the price and are getting let out. Many do not even know they are not supported.
I hope you are right about Apple. They should at least let their users know to upgrade for the latest security threats ... assuming you can if you are first generation intel owners or powerpc.
I haven't seen any in years. The ones I see come with Windows 7 starter edition. I did work at a PC shop as early as the summer of 2010 where all we sold were used machines upgraded with more ram that have XP on them. Windows 7 was still new and cool at the time for those with huge 4 gigs of ram but those days are over.
It is both a trojan and a malware drive bye.
If you do not click on it, it is malware and will use a memory corruption bug to infect your account. You can delete your account to delete it. If you do click on it the malware turns into a deadlier trojan that runs as administrator and is more difficult to remove.
Most malware these days regardless of type target multiple vulnerabilities. Since IE and Chrome have a sandbox ... what is up with Firefox not having one? ... you need to first get past the sanbox. After that target something in Windows and a bonus if you can do it as a standard user to infect an administrative service or permission on a file. So they use several techniques.
Many infect your machine then use a backdoor installer to do more damage after penetrating the systems defenses so in essence they download and execute trojans
I have more sympathy for those who blew $2,000 for an iMac only to be dumped in 3 years vs those in 2009 got a $199 netbook special with XP. 4 to 5 years support for these low end users sounds reasonable. Apple dropped them like a hot potato. Jobs even broke his own promise of supporting powerPC users for 5 more years.
So many corporate users and those who took our advice not to use Vista, and that XP was GOD wont leave. It is like XP became the pinnacle and gold standard in cannon on what the PC is for these people.
Of course it would help if companies like Cisco actually supported newer browsers besides IE 6 and 7. It forces these companies in. 20 million by 2014 will still be on XP or more vs just 500k with old macs will be a big challenge and will get nasty. I think this is a taste of what is to come.
If I were an evil credit card hacker I would write the ultimate new code red and wait until 1 day after MS ends all support and then have a field day getting rich. MS wont do anything about it until I have a few billion in stolen money. Like a license, unsupported machines should not be on the world wide web and need to be disabled. XP users will come out with pitchforks and flaming torches with an army of lawyers sadly.
10.5 makes up 16.5% of Mac users, sure a lot are on PPC and the Flashback isn't targeting it, or is it?
Also about 4-5% are still on 10.4%
Apple didn't issue Diginotar Root certs fixes for these older OS X version neither.
Come when 10.8 is released, a whopping 65% of Mac users on 10.4-10.6 will be ripe for the pickings
Because Apple only updates the last two OS X versions in circulation, then is now releasing a new OS X version every year.
Microsoft on the other hand issues updates for their OS for 10 years?
Mac's a better value? Less prone to malware? Not for too much longer...
... and yet I find it hilarious when I read all the angry rants on wired.com and here on how poor old XP is going to lose support in 2 years a mere 13.5 years after launch.
This dwells into the more serious issue of the security nightmare that will come when all internet enabled computers that are more used like XP become abandonded. Personally I think it would be a good idea to disable port 80 on all devices 3 months after support ends to keep the upcoming security nightmare. It will anger many users but many malware writters will target XP if MacOSX has so many infections yet remains so small marketshare wise still. We do not allow vehicles with rags for a gas cap to go on the road right?
I understand Apple losses money to support users but something should be done. If not after a few billion lost dollars in bank accounts will create some nasty lawsuits.
I had no idea, that's almost 500 per coffee shop!
I guess you have not been to a Starbucks in awhile.
Wouldnt the cost increase to offset the savings? A new van would not have to be in a shop for 6 months!
A 400k van would need daily checks and weekly maintanence
The problem is that is the attitude for 70% of the fortune 500 companies. Not just a few isolated companies. Its hard to write a business case where the risks are non tangible and cant have an exact number in Excel. Savings are tangible and can be shown.
Worse Wall street loves these CEOs as they cause variation which their HFT supercomputers can short. They make money either way and a large increase and fall of shareprice makes the investors happy. Not long term growth
I started a flamewar a few times with that argument here that sales make money you cost money. Therefore you should not get paid that much etc.
But in a very large enterprise you get efficiency by leaving 2 million line excel spreadsheets all over the network to a centralized database program. ERP saves time and money instead of hiring a bunch of college kids to call people and ask questions when a remote internet/intranet app integrated can solve this saving money. What about about increased security and reliability by switching from IE 6 to IE 10/Windows Server 2012?
What about demand forecasting and inventory management?
The CEOs who made it by cutting costs and only using Excel as accountants before their promotions do not see this. It is pennywide but dollar dumb to not view technology as it is so used so much in large environments. No one ever got ahead by cutting costs, not investing, and trying to win by staying behind. The problem lies both with GAAP being viewed as set stone and a holy grail. And CEOs where were former Finance and Accounting gurus who in the past were not made CEOs and who use GAAP rather than common sense for every business decision.
Its like a cookie cutter these days if you watch TV shows like UnderCover Boss. Everytime they go undercover they say "I will look for ways to find cost over runs and find inefficiences" only to find angry underpaid and overworked employees and costs going up due to too little investment by the cheapstakes in the corporate headquarters.
One of these days another code red will come that will take down corporations causing billions in damages that will be all using IE 6/XP after 2014. The damage will not be hit to those who are already modern and then the real costs of being outdated will show. You do not see companies who have vechicles with 200k miles or machines that are well past their live still in production? Yet their computer systems are. That is just plain stupid.