You’d think that, having seen its entire international network brought low be a benign virus two Christmasses ago by a supposedly benign virus, IBM would be a little more careful about the approach it takes to publically available network services but no, its Prodigy Systems Co joint venture with Sears Roebuck & Co in White Plains is set up with a facility for wreaking incalculable mischief on the personal computers of the subscribers to the viewdata service. Our US associate Technology News of America logged on the other day, got a screen saying hang about, followed by a pause and a bit of disk activity, then the system sighed with relief and said that’s better – we just installed a new release of the software on your machine. Quite apart from not wanting IBM nosing about inside their machines and checking what other software they’ve got, many users will think twice about a system that seems designed to enable a malevolent spirit to plant viruses in every user’s computer.
