Does your anti-virus software make you less or more vulnerable?

I've been meaning to say something about this for a week or two now, but was reminded again of it this morning.

So I ask you - in a reasonable world, what would you think would be a reasonable course of action if a substitute teacher came in to a school and started using a computer that was infected with spyware, and kept on insisting on popping up porn pictures no matter what the teacher did? What if the school district had been negligent about keeping any web filtering working and keeping antivirus software working on the computer (don't get me started on the evils of Windows).

That's right - fire her and put her in jail for the rest of her life. What else?

Okay - now I'm far from in favor of having kids look at porn while they'e at school. But this is crazy.  It's essentially been allowed to progress in this nutso fashion for two years now - I'll try to keep you posted on how it comes out.

This is one of the craziest mis-applications of effort I have ever heard of. It involves local "experts" who clearly couldn't (in the words of our president) "use the Google" if it bit them on the butt. How many of you have ever used a Windows computer that was so infected with trojans and spyware that you never knew what was going to happen next? Okay, so I used to work at a University and I've probably seen a lot more of this than most people, but trust me - it's like having a computer posessed by a daemon. Usually one that has a preference for smut.

Anyway - this poor woman is being railroaded by a bunch of over-zealous local folks. I'm going to look if there's anything that can be done to contribute to her legal defense.