When the deadlines, travel disasters and relentless spew of e-mail become too much to take, I often comfort myself with the business plan I cooked up for my retirement some years ago: an old-fashioned Italian water ice
vending stand on a popular beach. The idea would be to work 12+ hour days for a few months of the year while the sun and sand provides an endless supply of customers and then settle back in a small cottage to write, visit friends and tinker with airplanes for the rest of the time. Given the reliable nature of hot summer days and thirsty beach-goers, it seemed like the ultimate business plan. Much to my dismay, several conversations I’ve had recently indicate that at least one high-tech company may have come up with an even more clever way to ensure a steady stream of customers.
I do my best to avoid spreading unsubstantiated rumors, but one of my most reliable informants has told me that a major anti-virus software vendor has a history of allowing viruses and other malware it’s created in its research labs to escape into The Wild from time to time. Normally, I’d put these allegations in the same category I put the stories I hear about the One World Government being secretly put in by the Ancient Order of
Illuminati, but my source (a retired white-hat hacker) insists that this information comes directly from several friends who work in the R& D lab of such a vendor.
My contact says these folks work in labs that maintain menageries of collected and internally-created viruses that are used to help develop and test their company’s latest anti-malware products. If the stories my friend relates can be believed, there have been many so-called
accidents that result in a PC or server outside the lab quarantine zone becoming infected and allowing the malicious contents out into the Internet. It’s hard to believe that a company would deliberately inflict such misery on the cyber-world simply to create a steady demand for its product but, given what we know about the tobacco industry’s history, it would not be unprecedented.
I’ve spent a couple of hours trying to see if I could uncover information that would verify or disprove my source’s allegations, but so far have been unable to find anything that I’d consider more reliable or informative that what I’ve already been told. Nevertheless, I find it hard to completely ignore what I’ve heard. That’s why I’m asking our readers to chime in via e-mail or on our blog if they have any information that would help clear up this matter. If you do write me, I’ll be here – dreaming of that small beachside shack and the world’s second-best business model.
Comments? Questions? Thoughts on self-perpetuating business models, your favorite Italian ice flavor, or your favorite beach?
Write me at
lhg at en-genius dot net or post your comments on our blog.
