Rubenerd

ZDNet Australia is reporting on yet another bug caused by terminals running anti-virus software on a consumer level operating system instead of using a more efficient and secure embedded system that wouldn't need such code running in the first place.

Australian supermarket behemoth Coles was today hit by a McAfee bug that affected 10 per cent of its point of sales terminals and forced it to shut down stores in both WA and South Australia.

While this would have been terrible for business and a huge inconvenience for customers, somehow I feel better knowing they were software bugs and not some creepy crawlies that closed them down. Software bugs are much more hygienic, unless they're messing with QC I suppose.

That reminds me, I need to do my belated review of Windows Security Essentials at some point too. It's been so long since I've had something positive to say about a Microsoft product that it took me quite by surprise. This still doesn't mean that Windows should be used on sales terminals and other such devices though, what a terrible idea. It hurts my brain in an excruciating way.