Once upon a time, there was an "Idea" called "Anarchism".

The Anarchist movement was formed at the end of the 19th century. An outgrowth of the burgeoning Socialist Movement, its sole purpose was to utterly remake society -- and thus boost social change -- through the elimination of governments and their attendant bureaucracies. Anarchy's credo was just that: "An-Archy", "No Rulers". Every man to be an island of freedom and reason unto himself, with no outside government interference to be tolerated. Its greatest prophet was Mikhail Bakunin, Russian nobleman, serf- owner (!), and radical. Bakunin's great statement of purpose was the concept of the "Idea and the Deed." The "Idea" of Anarchy could not be brought to fruition without the "Deed": the actual removal of the government control from people's lives. He found a ready supply of zealous disciples to do the removal.

The "Deeds" committed were of a violent nature, and usually involved the use of high explosives or firearms upon prominent politicians and business leaders. In this, the Anarchists were very successful. Two of the most notable "Deeds" were the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, and the assassination of US President William McKinley. The "Deed" was ultimately destructive to the "Idea". One by one Bakunin's disciples were either imprisoned, executed, or blew themselves up. The movement enjoyed a brief revival during the 1960's and '70's with the radical "Weathermen" bombings, but Anarchism seemed destined for the communist's "Ash-heap of History" even before communism wound up there instead.

Now, I'm not so sure.

The "Idea" may not be evident these days, but the "Deed" certainly is. I got introduced to it this past Friday, June 11, 1999, at 2:37 PM EDT.

For the past six days, my company and I have been busy picking up the pieces of our virtual existence, after a visit from the so-called "Explorer" virus.

This nasty little bastard first appeared in the email files of our tech department last Friday afternoon, and left scorched and blackened remains of our company LAN and data files in its wake. Word files, Excel files, PowerPoint files, all destroyed in the blink of an eye! The damned virus was just leap-frogging all over the place, playing merry hell with the whole system, using our own email address files as it's targeting system. The worst thing was, as soon as one person discovered that there was a virus loose in the system, he promptly and unwittingly emailed everybody else about it, and spread the hellish thing even faster!

Fortunately, my CFO has the good sense to back up all company data files each and every Wednesday, so we only lost two days' worth of records. I guess being overly anal really DOES have its advantages, doesn't it? Well, it took us all weekend, but the company was able to open for business on Monday, bloody, battered, and a whole lot smarter for the lessons we'd learned. First: anybody, and I do mean ANYBODY, has the ability to bring your whole virtual world crashing to the ground with one stupid, thoughtless act. This includes anybody, from juvenile pranksters all the way up to the real cyber-terrorists, those folks with political agendas and no consciences. Second: because of this sort of cyber-terrorism, you need to keep current back-ups of all pertinent data files. This saves you the big headache of trying to rebuild the system from Day One, instead of a couple of days ago. Third: with the increased sophistication of Internet-borne viruses, vigilance over your email site and provider is a necessity. Unsolicited email files with attachments should be treated with suspicion, and no attachments are to be accessed, opened, or unzipped without first confirming with the sender that the files are genuine. We now routinely delete ANY unsolicited emails with attachments.

(The following is a blatant PLUG.
N.B. : I found this really neat-o site, www.avp.com, (source: Kaspersky Labs) that is the most up-to-date source on the various viruses, worms, trojan horses, etc., that infest the 'Net. The section they have on THIS nasty beast is particularly informative. They have a superb program, "Anti-Viral Toolkit Pro", and are kind enough to provide a downloadable copy for evaluation. Give 'em a look-see, and let me know what you think.)

Fourth and finally: this incident has given me insight into what a felony crime victim must go through.
1) The anger and disgust for what this person has done to my company.
2) The fear that there might just be something the S.O.B. left behind that the anti-virus program didn't catch.
3) The fact that this stranger has just waltzed into my life and livelihood, messed it up, has done so as a purely random act of cyber-violence, and has gotten away scot-free to boot!
4) This perpetrator doesn't know of me or my business, nor does he care, so long as the chaos spreads ever-outward from its perverse source. The "randomness" of the act itself breeds the terror and chaos he craves. And finally...
5) I now have a long-lasting suspicious regard for ANY email communication I receive. My "social interaction", (my LIFE, for crying out loud) has been altered because of what this criminal has done!

As "Netizens", we all believe that the unimpeded ebb and flow of information across the 'Net is its "raison d'etre", its "reason for being". Any disruption of that flow --done "with malice aforethought", whether as a prank or out of spite-- is a felony, and should be dealt with and punished as such. I trust that my colleagues in the real world will "do their duty" in this matter.

And God help ANY miscreant who is brought before MY bench for justice this week. I might start laying hands on people.

Court's adjourned!
Judge Oaf
Senior Judge of the Superior Court of the BEArchive