Nick Cole

Scotland

Director

This highly relevant and interesting article illustrates how the more complex something is the greater likelihood of a major unforeseen problem occuring.

We do not help matters by insisting on automating and providing the means of automatic connection outwith the control of the operators of critical functions on our machines. The interdependency of all these items is frightening if thought about. Because we allow programmes to interact with the operating system, hardware and wider network/internet through macros, embedded html, or whatever we create the very conditions that cause these problems.

The conundrum is that the most secure computer is one that doesn't interact with any other, and possibly with anybody as well! Human nature is a significant factor but so is the deliberate or inadvertent coding of systems that allows remote execution, with the inability of any collective error trapping mechanism to monitor every conceivable fault opportunity.

If people realised how vulnerable things are they would be more careful.