Â鶹´«Ã½

From Matti Nummelin

Computer viruses have been widely discussed in Â鶹´«Ã½, most
recently in Feedback
(14 August).
However, there is one point that I have not
noticed in these articles, namely that computer viruses seriously hamper the
development of poor countries.

I returned some time ago from Tanzania, where I served as a scientific
adviser in a government office. I spent a fair proportion of my working hours
removing viruses from the computers. I had good tools to do it with, since my
antivirus software was constantly updated by the section of the Finnish home
office dealing with the project.

Since I left, I have received several infected files from Tanzania. The only
thing I could do was to alert the senders and ask them to clean their machines
as soon as possible. However, I am afraid that they cannot afford new updates to
their antivirus software.

The best solution I can see is for an international body such as the UN
Development Programme to coordinate the creation of antivirus software that
anybody could download free from the Internet. This should work in the same
manner as Linux—the development of the software should be open to anybody.

Helsinki, Finland