Hu starts his everyday work with checking mailboxes, and everyday he’s greeted by a dozen or so uninvited spam emails. Some of his colleagues even receive hundreds of them. This is really annoying.
Several years ago, Hu installed an anti-spam system in the company’s mail server. But it didn’t work well. Regular mail was often blocked while spam kept getting through. In fact, it once got so bad that CFO Cai became enraged when he missed an important email from an investor. By the time the original email was recovered by the network administrator, the investor had already changed his mind and Cai lost a financing opportunity for the company.
The incident made Hu determined to add a professional anti-spam-mail server. He used to be against the idea as he thought it was a waste of money. However, Cai insisted, “It prevents junk mails, saves us valuable time and avoids unexpected losses. I think it’s worthwhile.” With that, Cai approved the budget on his own initiative.
It turned out to be a right decision. The new server had an instant effect on anti-spam protection. But Hu wasn’t that happy. “Billions of Yuan are spent on such anti-spam systems across the country each year, and I’ve also contributed to that figure now,” he sighed dismally. He was well informed that a single server could not solve all the problems. He pressed his workers to keep an eye on the server’s filters, but even a slight adjustment by the system administrator would often allow a flood of spam pouring into the system. Gaining any ground on the problem was a constant struggle.
He decided to send all the spam to the trash box of his smart mail software, which automatically memorized such emails, and filtered all of them later on. It served as a last measure of defense. He then wrote a short reminder to the system administrator.
When he logged onto the company’s forum, he saw a message from Song, describing his enthusiastic fighting experience with those spam mails. Song was in charge of desktop system support. Hu forced a smile after reading the message. Previously, the desktop support system had mainly involved relatively simple software and hardware maintenance. It should be a tedious job with low technical content. However, since Song’s recruitment, it never seemed that easy, fighting spirit also became a must.
As the company’s business became closely bound up with the Internet and application information system, employees spent more time working with the Internet. However, the nagging online advertisements tended to distract them from the important information: pop up ads were mysteriously creeping on employees’ browsers, tools bars materialized out of nowhere, screens suddenly displayed odd websites, and irrelevant software might sometime be installed without notice. The desperate workers turned to Song for help. He called such software “rogues”, who took advantage of the browser’s plug-in functions and hidden defects of the operating systems to hijack computers.
Every time he detected new rogue software, Song got excited like a hunter tracking his prey. But the frequency and extent of the “network rogues” was escalating. Song had piled up hundreds of rogues. Now he had been able to figure out how they worked and even devised a special anti-rogue tool. But the more immersed Song became in his task, the more depressed Hu felt. Hu would rather Song be assigned to a position that created real value for the company.
The other day Song reported finding a curious spy plug-in in the computer of a sales worker. It was probably being delivered by the company’s rivals to spy on their business secrets. Hu was astonished. The company was always putting information security in the first priority, but somehow the spy ware managed to creep past. How could this happen?
Hu has now deployed a crack team dedicated to eradicating rogue software in the company’s information system. Given the current state of the system, it could be a “mission impossible”. But it’s better than standing around by doing nothing.
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中文链接：CIO故事之十八：垃圾与流氓