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By Felicity Ussher, 2 June 2000 00:25

COMMENT Apparently the media needs a bit of help. Our ability to pick out a Melissa or a Love Bug from the plethora of hoax viruses on the Web has been cast into doubt by software vendors who say we over-hype the issues. They say we need a 'virus committee' to grade each virus against a common benchmark, so that businesses can be saved from unnecessary worry. No one's denying it is scary for IT managers to read splash headlines of imminent doom on their way to work. But let us respond with a simple question. Who is going to sit on that committee? It's got to be independent. It's got to be expert. And it must be able to distribute its views instantaneously to mass audiences. It can't be the vendors of normal software. They will always say the threats are low because they don't want their software to appear flawed. It can't be the vendors of security software. They will always say the threats are high, because they want to protect you against it. And it's taken them ten years just to agree that it's time to agree on danger levels. It can't be the FBI or other governmental bodies. They would never admit something was not a threat to national security - just in case it fell into the hands of pornographers, drug dealers, terrorists et al. The true security experts are the scientists working in the software labs. They're a fantastic bunch, if you ever get the chance to chat, and they certainly put science above sales. But the best ones tend to be too busy to get involved. You want all these vested interests to sit on a committee together? And agree with one another? Regularly and reliably? No, what's needed is a group that can liase between these people, to provide information for the public as and when required. It needn't be an absolute authority, because that could be corrupted, but it should be respected, reliable, and above all, independent. Hey, let's call it 'the media'.