HAVE YOU SCANNED FOR MALICIOUS CONTENT LATELY?

Editor

A standard security message concludes almost every e-mail with an attachment that arrives in the Sentinel offices. That message tells us that our security program has "scanned this e-mail message for malicious content." Now, if only a software product truly could screen out the malice itself!

Computer users can value everything information technology departments do to protect computer systems from the tidal waves of junk and destructive content that flood the Internet. Tech-wise sentinels are fighting tough battles on IT frontiers—to keep up with innovation and bandwidth demands while limiting spam, preventing viruses, and avoiding both invasive worms and so-called phishing expeditions. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines worm as "a self-replicating [and memory-gobbling] computer program," and phishing as "attempting to fraudulently acquire sensitive personal information by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business."

As important as Internet communication security has become in our wired/wireless world, it deals more with effects rather than causes. One of this magazine's aims is to watch the trend of human thought and behavior, thus helping readers to get at the mental cause of life's troubles and heal their destructive effects. We're concerned, for example, with keeping hidden malice from polluting hearts and lives, thus preventing the outward migration of malicious willfulness into our communities, nations, and international discourse.

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