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REAL LIFE NEWS: WHEN A VIRUS ATTACK IS A GOOD THING

by Hazed

Proof that modern technological advances are not always a good thing comes from the US Economic Development Administration (EDA), which recently got hit by a virus attack so severe they had to turn off their email system for over twelve weeks.

As a result, the agency’s staff and customers have discovered that using faxes and phone calls instead of emails results in a better and faster service.

The EDA is part of the Commerce Department. When they suffered the virus attack, the worry was that it would spread to the parent organisation, so the plug was pulled on their systems to cut off the infection. Replacement infrastructure was built but in the meantime the agency had no working email. As a result, the staff gave out personal cell phone numbers to customers so they could stay in touch, and also reverted to old-fashioned faxes.

Customers have appreciated the opportunity to talk to actual, real people on the phone. “You pick up your phone and you get back to some human interaction,” one customer told the Washington Post, “which in my opinion is never a bad thing, especially for government.”

Quite right.

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/10/us_government_service_improves_without_email/

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