Verity Stob, at The Register, reported on the poor quality of the BBC’s revision website for secondary school students. However, Ms. Stob did not reveal the depths of errors in the section on viruses:
- First sentence, first page: “A virus is simply a program designed to cause harm to someone else's computer.” Wrong! A key attribute of a virus is the ability to replicate.
- Second page: You can catch a virus by, “putting an infected floppy disk into your computer” – no requirement for executing a program from the floppy (e.g. by booting from the disc, or loading a document with an auto-macro)?
- Or by, “obtaining software from an unreliable source”. You know it was an unreliable source when you realise you got a virus from it!
- I hope it is not meant to be a comprehensive list… is inserting CD-ROMs, or USB storage devices safe?
- Third page, preventing viruses: “not allowing other users to use their own floppy disks on your system”, so lending them your disks, to transfer the files, is OK? Anyway, giving advice that you know cannot be reasonably followed is pointless. We use computers to cooperate and share information; indiscriminate restrictions are not useful.
- And, “only downloading files from reputable Internet sites”, and, “avoiding software from unreliable sources”. Again, the difficulty is knowing whether the site was reputable, or the source reliable in advance.
- And, “backing up data regularly”. No, backups do not help to prevent viruses at all; they can help in recovering from the effects of viruses. However, they can also help to reintroduce a virus that had been eliminated.
- Fourth page, viruses and the law: “Writing a virus or deliberately spreading one is illegal.” Wrong! Writing a virus is not illegal, and The Computer Misuse Act (1990) does not specifically mention or define viruses. Altering programs or data without permission is illegal, so spreading a virus is a crime.
- Seventh page, the glossary: “crashing memory: A serious computer failure. The computer itself stops working or a program aborts unexpectedly.” No. Crashing memory: A vague term used by people who don’t know what is going on.
- Also, “virus: A virus is programming code which spreads from computer to computer causing damage to the computer and/or software.” Oh, the definition has changed from the first page… and at least the word “spreads” is in there, but still not accurate.
- The test: Ms. Stob points out the problem with question 2, but what is question 4 doing there at all? It has no relevance to viruses.
Updated: 23rd April 2009
The BBC's revision pages on viruses have been re-organised into five pages, the text above still refers to the old pagination, but the links have been updated. Most of the problems raised still remain, but question 4 has been removed - presumably someone noticed it was irrelevant.