Why are so many geeky types fascinated by intruding into other peole's PCs? Its not only the bad guys, IT people - Sytem Administrators and so on - are just as guilty. My office desktop is packed with spyware installed by the IT department.
They aren't doing it for fun as most of them detest invasion of privacy at least as much as anyone else. Go to a site like
Slashdot.org and look at articles about privacy invasion. Many companies, if not all, monitor what happens on their network for several reasons, not the least of which is liability for what it is used for. Industrial espionage is also high on the list as it could potentially be much easier with the internet. There is also the Big Brother aspect of just monitoring what their employees are up to.
The decision to monitor usually comes from the management or legal side, not the geeks. This just dumps more work on the geeks, that I'm sure they don't really want. Just another side effect of the wonderful world we live in.
I don't think the internet is "close to outliving it's usefulness" anytime soon. All that is needed is for all users to learn a little about their new toys before they take them out for a spin. This won't prevent all viruses, but will stop the mass email ones that rely on people to open them or ones that rely on unsecured systems etc., much like driver education cuts down on automobile accidents.
goates