bealoid wrote:
> Just how long can electricity, telephony, and internet connections
remain
> running without anyone to run them?
>
> Viruses and malware would be able to trojan everything that wasn't
pathced,
> and they'd be spewing email, so some systems would be over-run. A few
> flaky nodes would spread rot.
It'd probably be on the order of a month before machines would start
failing on their own. On the order of a few months and environmental
events (rain, trees falling over, etc.) would knock out power or
connectivity lines. As months pass things might start getting
noticeably degraded.
Viruses, malware, and email spammers would likely fall off because only
automated systems left running would be engaging in those activities,
and no new attacks are being issued, as well as no new unprotected
systems being put online. (Unprotected systems may be compromised, but
they were already vulnerable before the incident, so there's nothing new
there.)
As for power and telephone, I'm not sure how much manual intervention is
required. I'd guess they'd stay up for weeks, but not months.
--
Erik Max Francis && max@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
&& http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, CA, USA && 37 18 N 121 57 W && AIM, Y!M erikmaxfrancis
Liberty is the right to do whatever the law permits.
-- Charles Louis Montesquieu
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