The Net has become an accepted part of life today, at least for most Americans. New advances are coming, with many set to burst out in the year to come. The next big revolution will come as more and more applications move away from PCs and onto servers, and, in fact, off of corporate servers. We're seeing companies like Critical Path offering outsourced e-mail. But educating users on how viruses work, the danger they pose, and what not to do isn't enough to change their e-mail habits.
Experts stress attempting to modify user behavior to thwart viral infections is a fool' s game.
Mike Serbinis, chief security officer for Critical Path , says IT managers often blame end users for proliferating viruses. Viruses should be stopped at the server and service levels before they ever reach the end user. Companies that may not be willing, or even qualified to seal their corporations against viruses are prime candidates for email outsourcing. Critical Path plans to add digital signatures by the second quarter of 2001. The obvious advantage is scalability.