NPR has been talking a lot about viruses lately. Why? Because it has now been 20 years since the first major virus, Brain, showed up on the scene and marked the beginning of a long history of malicious viruses. Sure, Rich Skrenta wrote Elk Cloner to share pirated computer games with friends as early as 1982, but his program wasn’t malicious enough to make a big splash.

Still, the heyday of computer viruses was five or six years ago. Computer prodigies are focusing on other, equally harmful ventures these days. Weekend Edition’s Scott Simon interviewed senior editor of Wired magazine Nicholas Thompson, who had some interesting things to say. He theorizes there are so many ways to spend time on the Internet these days, from using Bit Torrent to downloading movies to blogging, that the people who were once attracted to writing viruses are now otherwise occupied.

So what do we have to watch out for? According to Thompson, cell phone viruses are gaining momentum now that we’re doing so much more than talking on our mobile phones. He also explained that the types of people who wrote viruses back then are now working to write programs that give spam companies access to computers instead. Mike Rothman has some valuable insight on spamming on his Security Insight blog, and SearchSecurityChannel.com expert Russ Vines has just come out with a resource list for the Wall Street Journal – keep it in mind if you’re tasked with protecting customers from security threats.

What do you think the next big threat will be? Post a comment and let us know.

It was inevitable. After all the hype. After all the talking heads had spoken, Microsoft’s new OS, Vista, will finally hit the shelves tonight at midnight.

Bill Gates was so excited that he couldn’t contain himself.

It still remains to be seen how large an affect this will have on the Channel, but the smart money says it will — eventually. While it does make a lot of sense for VARs and systems integrators to stay on the cutting edge of available technology, deploying Vista with a company you support on Tuesday morning might just result in toilet paper all over your face.

The Reseller News is already talking about the problems they’ve had with the installation. From backing up all your files to getting anything to display on the monitor, there are likely to be some bumps along the way.

Just imagine what would happen to all of you, my friends, if you installed Vista at a company Tuesday night and none of the monitors worked properly on Wednesday morning. Put on a pot of coffee, it’s going to be a long day of support.

But it is just a matter of time until the early adopters have blazed the trail deep enough that more companies are going to want to start taking part. Patch Tuesday will become part of the vernacular again (if it ever went away) andVARs and systems integrators will need to be ready to take advantage of the business opportunities it presents. Bundling the software with new hardware can lead to support roles which could be renewed on a regular basis.

Regardless of how you plan on selling and supporting Vista, Jonathan Hassell may have the best advice out there: Get training.

And if you’re thinking of playing with Vista at home to get a feel for it, take a look at The Cult of Mac. While Vista is assuredly designed for your personal computer, running it on your personal Mac might be more satisfying.

No business is safe from email security issues. As a consultant or VAR, you have to deal with customers’ spam, phishing and denial-of-service attacks, and you’ve probably tried to solve these problems with encryption, digital certificates and rerouting traffic, among other tactics. But despite your best efforts, the employees themselves are often to blame for security threats.

In a recent New York Times article, prominent security professionals discussed the growing trend where employees forward company email to personal Web accounts — like Google and Yahoo — for easy access. No matter how strong your customer’s office email security may be (see our Email Security Project Guide), once the information leaves the office, there’s almost no way to control it. So what’s the answer?

Some companies block access to external email accounts through Internet policies, and others monitor all outbound mail to Web accounts searching for perpetrators who forward private company information to insecure sites, but employees complain about the lack of trust these solutions suggest. In Email threats: Educating your SMB Customer, Larry Loeb says: “Email is not just text transmissions any more. It is the flow of information that supports and makes a business possible. A VAR or consultant has to appreciate this reality, and make sure their customers do, too.”

Take those words to heart in today’s scary email security environment. If you can help your customers understand that many real threats come from employees clicking on bogus links and forwarding sensitive information to their personal accounts, you’ll become an invaluable resource. You might also consider solutions that allow employees to access company email just as quickly and easily as personal email, but with office security policies in place. That way they won’t even be tempted to hit the forward button.

Do you have an email security breach horror story? Post it here or pose a question to Russell Dean Vines, our information security threat expert.