"Although it's totally beyond me how people can not know about viruses.... They may not know all the latest variants, but they have to be familiar with the concept. I hope."It's equally beyond me. Unless it's blasted over the news and radio like the Novarg virus has been recently (in the UK anyway) and printed up on microsoft.com on the front page, and every subsequent page thereafter, then the "general public" just aren't aware. Even then a lot of people will forget in a few months time...I bet a lot of the "general public" can't even remember what the Blaster worm was, or at least they'd only remember it vaguely.
They say experience is the best teacher, and I think it's true in this case. Until someone has actually been infected with a virus that's actually harmed *their* computers (many couldn't care less about the fact they might be loading bots that are being used to attack others), then they don't make any effort to be aware of viruses. If they're forced to reformat because of a particularly bad one, or lose an essay they've been working on for days, they suddenly become safety concious.
However, they also say prevention is better than cure
Regards,
