Our office network was down for the past 2 days due to virus attack. We already knew of the security loophole last week. An e-mail announcement was sent to inform users to apply the patch themselves. The problem was, the non tech-savvy users could not make sense of the e-mail and ignored it, and thus exposing themselves to the malicious virus. The attack had stalled our network, disconnected our electronic communication with the outside world and halted our ERP system, leading to damages that could well be translated to tens of thousands of dollars. Our poor IT admin guys had been working round the clock without rest, applying security patches and cleaning up infected PCs. While I've no doubt that their effort and commitment were indeed commendable, it had set me thinking how could the situation be better handled. Such firefighting work could be prevented if IT had taken sufficient precautionary action. Instead of relying on the users, they could encode it in the logon script and let the system auto-patch. I'm not sure of the details, I'm sure something can be done. A small proactive job on their part could be translated in thousands of dollars saved. Just hope that a lesson can be learnt out of this.

On a separate note, take a look at this creative invention by the Japanese. Wow. Just imagine the benefits that this small gadget can give to new mothers. Kudos to the Japs.