“Newspaper editors for a century have called each day’s paper ‘The Daily Miracle,’ in tribute to all the things that have to happen before it ends up on your doorstep. But nine days ago, high-tech disaster struck the newspaper. For a moment, it looked like there was a real possibility that The Blade would not be able to publish a paper for – what other day could be more appropriate – Friday, Jan. 13. Yet they did,” Jack Lessenberry reports for The Toledo Blade.
“‘It truly was a miracle that we published The Blade that morning, and we did it all working together,’ said Kurt Franck, Blade managing editor. What happened was that the newspaper was ambushed by a high-tech varmint. Despite firewalls and other protective systems, a deadly computer virus broke through and hit the newspaper’s network shortly before 10 a.m. on Jan. 12. Within a short period of time, almost nothing was working. The Blade was cut off from the Internet, from e-mail, and from much of its own material,” Lessenberry reports. “The Blade’s first edition was published on Dec. 19, 1835. One hundred and seventy years later, a high-tech criminal tried to do something that civil wars and epidemics have failed to do – prevent The Blade from putting out a paper.”
“Staffers from different departments worked together side by side. People kept their tempers and worked far into the night. Most of The Blade’s computers wouldn’t talk to each other, but the newspaper’s MacIntoshes were immune to the virus,” Lessenberry reports. “In the end, the Macs and the flash drives saved the day. The paper got off the presses three hours late, but it was printed – and delivered.”
“Though computer experts were called in to start working on fixing the sabotage, problems persisted for several days, and the expensive and tedious task of cleaning and disinfecting each individual computer terminal is still under way,” Lessenberry reports. “The virus took a heavy financial toll on The Blade, Mr. Zerbey said; the paper lost many thousands of dollars in advertising alone that it was unable to publish. But it will lead to better security systems. “We’re setting up a disaster recovery room that will be manned at all times with computers that are immune to viruses,” Mr. Zerbey said. The Blade’s internal network will also be cleaned and strengthened.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “Brian T.” for the link.]
MacDailyNews Take: It’s good to have a stronger network and disaster recovery procedures in place, but wouldn’t it make a heck of a lot more sense to get some more Macs? Based on what happened, that solution seems more logical to us.
P.S. Now there’s a viable Macintosh ad (based on an actual story) for you right there, Apple.
P.P.S. As for this part:
On Friday the 13th, The Blade was flooded with angry calls from readers who noticed the imperfections in their paper, or complained because it was delivered late. “I stopped counting after 66 calls that morning,” said Mr. Corsoe, the sports editor. “But it was funny – as soon as I explained about the computer virus, they understood. Almost all of them instantly became sympathetic.” – See the article Defending Windows over Mac a sign of mental illness from our own SteveJack. It’s all about “Stockholm Syndrome” and why Windows users have such difficulty seeing the glaring truth.
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MDN, your take is way off. This guy pretty much said he was going to get some more Macs:
“Staffers from different departments worked together side by side. People kept their tempers and worked far into the night. Most of The Blade’s computers wouldn’t talk to each other, but the newspaper’s MacIntoshes were immune to the virus,”
“We’re setting up a disaster recovery room that will be manned at all times with computers that are immune to viruses,”
This is exactly what Apple needs to do. Take completely true real life stories, and turn them into a vatriant of the Mac switch campaign. use phrases like “it’s not your fault, but it is your problem” and TRY NOT TO INSULT POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS.
Etc
MDN word: manner, as in the manner that Apple handles it’s advertising for the Macintosh is appaling.
It would make a lot of sense to make the newspaper a all Mac shop
21 years at a newspaper, we only got 1 disc based virus 17 years ago in our Mac production department.
And what? There’s like 150,000 malware programs floating around for Windows?
We have been telling this to the world ever since…..
But sadly, nobody wants to listen, and still choosing the hard way….
Sob sob sob…..
WHY???????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m putting this up at the Newspaper where I work, heck, I may even make a copy for the Publisher and Managing Editor.
<<Typed on the mac my newspaper purchased for me.>>
what can I say, buy a mac.
Don’t tell us MDN. Tell the world! It’s all well and good for us handful of mac fans to pass these stories around eachother. But the world needs to know these kind of things. There is an alternative to virus ridden hell.
It would be foolish for Apple to use this story in an advertising campaign. Screaming out to the world “Our computers are immune to viruses!!!” is a great way to get hackers targeting your system. And when the (inevitable) first virus hits the Mac, you’ll have a bunch of angry customers (and the resulting lawsuits).
It’s best for Apple to stay quiet on the no viruses/spyware thing. Let others do the talking for them. They should instead be promoting ease of use, stability, design, etc.
Moe,
You can advertise the story about how the Mac saved the Newspaper’s 170 year reputation without even mentioning the word virus.
When the rest of the world was collapsing the Mac’s just worked.
Because life’s too short.
“We’re setting up a disaster recovery room that will be manned at all times with computers that are immune to viruses,” Mr. Zerbey said.
I only know of ONE computer that fits that description. If they’re not Mac’s then they are eligible for a Darwin Award.
So, what’s in the disaster recovery room?
blankets, tinned food, iodine to put in your tea and suppress the sexual urge, and lots of Macs.
Shouldn’t it be bromide in the tea I have heard of green tea but yellow tea? Unless its an ironic twist on all the IT types scared to take the plunge.
We should try to find out which computers they are using that are “immune to viruses”.
I have a feeling they may get sold (by a MS IT staff) that some version of MS is virus free and they need to upgrade to that.
We’re assuming that they are intelligent to realize that the Mac’s that worked are the OS to use.
This is exactly the type of thing the IT guys love. The article says all the cleaning and fixing “is still under way,”. Their IT guys and “computer experts” are saying to themselves right now “Oh yeah thank you windows for all this overtime!” woo hoo!
“Winblows-what do you have to fix today”
More proof that a fool and his money are soon parted.
Why shouldn’t MDN tell it like it is? The Macs save the day! Great! Let’s lock them in a dark, dusty room we’ll call the Disaster Recovery Room. That’ll teach ’em!
Oh, Moe: It would be foolish for Apple to use this story in an advertising campaign. Screaming out to the world “Our computers are immune to viruses!!!” is a great way to get hackers targeting your system. And when the (inevitable) first virus hits the Mac, you’ll have a bunch of angry customers (and the resulting lawsuits).
It’s best for Apple to stay quiet on the no viruses/spyware thing. Let others do the talking for them. They should instead be promoting ease of use, stability, design, etc.
Like the virus writers don’t know this? Are they living in the Disaster Recovery Room? No, Macs aren’t “immune” to viruses – there just haven’t been any yet (knock wood), but trumpeting the Macs virus resistance would be a good thing to do.
Also, did anybody get the oddity that the Disaster Recovery Room will be “manned with computers”?
“So, what’s in the disaster recovery room?”
A large comfortable bed and some aspirin in case an Earthquake gets a headache and needs to lie down.
5 to 1 that their Mac adverse IT person (who went with PCs to begin with)decides to use a Linux box in the disaster room. Some IT folks just don’t learn… even when the answer is staring them in the face.
Magic word “likely”!
Somebody should send this to the school board in Colorado thats replacing its Macs with PC’s so that its Tech Support group can have more time to spend on fixing PC’s.
“So, what’s in the disaster recovery room?”
Its in the nearest pub. Works for me every time.
you couldn’t write better copy for a print ad
(i miss the ad game
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<“I stopped counting after 66 calls that morning,” said Mr. Corsoe, the sports editor. “But it was funny – as soon as I explained about the computer virus, they understood. Almost all of them instantly became sympathetic.”>
It’s really pathetic that the virus attack has now become so common place that people aren’t angry when it happens – they are sympathetic to the victim. A “victim” that continually insistst on using Windows- WELL KNOWN to be vulnerable to virus attacks.
Sounds a lot like people that have a terrible chemical dependancy. No matter how bad things are they never blame the drugs until they hit rock bottom.
There is just no helping some people.
Sheese!
Windows, a bigger threat than Robert E. Lee. There’s a tag line for you.