We should keep computer viruses in perspective. Just as the killing of innocent hostages by terrorists has more psychological impact than the same number of deaths on the nation’s highways, someone with a disk trashed by a virus may be more irate than someone who loses eight hours’ work because of an electrical failure.
Predictor: Hoffman, Lance
Prediction, in context:In a 1990 article for The London Independent, Tom Wilkie reports on Lance Hoffman’s remarks about viruses and the Internet at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Wilkie writes: ”Computers will one day be sold equipped with security systems to protect them against viruses, just as seat belts are standard equipment on motor cars. Protecting against computer viruses is not easy, Professor Lance Hoffman, who is head of computer science at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., gave a warning to the meeting. But he said that the way present-day computers were built and marketed did not help. Like seat belts, anti-viral safeguards would not offer perfect protection, but future computers ought to be much safer than most of today’s personal computers, Professor Hoffman said … ‘We should keep computer viruses in perspective. Just as the killing of innocent hostages by terrorists has more psychological impact than the same number of deaths on the nation’s highways, someone with a disk trashed by a virus may be more irate than someone who loses eight hours’ work because of an electrical failure’ … Society was going to have to find solutions, both technical and legal, to the problems of computer viruses, but ‘problems from computer viruses and other rogue programs are a relatively small part of the day-to-day concerns of a typical security administrator,’ Professor Hoffman said.”
Biography:Lance Hoffman, a professor at George Washington University, was a security expert and the author of the 1994 National Science Foundation paper “Civilizing Cyberspace: Priority Policy Issues in a National Information Infrastructure” in addition to many other research pieces in the 1990s. He wrote the book “Rogue Programs: Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses” (Van Nostrand Rheinhold, 1990). (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1990
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Viruses/Worms
Name of publication: Independent (London)
Title, headline, chapter name: American Association for the Advancement of Science: Computers ‘Will be Made Virus-Proof’
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=837d587206e09d54f745f0f4be4953d8&_docnum=4&wchp=dGLbVlb-lSlzV&_md5=2392ec8a1506910dd71ddd4c99c97507
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Johnson, Kathleen