I was recently at a job site with such restrictive internet access that I could not retrieve a needed file even though I tried FTP, SFTP, email and a couple of other more obscure methods.

The site had a broadband link, but the real problem was an incredibily restrictive internet access corporate policy.

I finally drove to a nearby town and poached a WIFI connection to get my files...

Microsoft executives are implying that this kind of policy is not just an annoyance, but will make a company uncompetitive when trying to attract talented new employees.

“These kids are saying: forget it! I don’t want to work with you. I don’t want to work at a place where I can’t be freely online during the day,” said Anne Kirah, Microsoft Senior Design Anthropologist.

I think she's spot on. Kirah goes on to point out that the new generation is "digitally native", implying that they are so integrated and dependent on digital communication, that they simply will not work in primitive pre-digitial environments.

Kirah cited a Norwegian psychologist who claimed that young people were now so reliant on digital communication that “taking a mobile phone away from a teenage girl is the same as child abuse.”

I wouldn't go that far, but it is an very effective punishment for the rising generation.

Nevertheless, even paranoids have enemies.

While the rising generation is digitally integrated, they aren't necessary safe users. The cost of cyber mischief is impressive and open internet access just isn't financially feasible for most corporations. I would throw the ball back into Microsoft court and ask why they haven't done more to assure an open computing environment that is also a safe environment.

My ISP has spam filiters, My outlook runs spam filters, and yet I get 10 spam emails a day that make it into my inbox. A recent article I can't find anymore, admitted that aside from reformatting and reinstalling the operating system, there is no way to be sure that a machine compromised into a bot net, is actually free from infection.

Cyber security has a bright future...