Re: NYT article on the (ever-more-sophitsticated) bot wars

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Date: December 10, 2008 8:46:34 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>, "Eugene H. Spafford" <spaf () mac com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    NYT article on the (ever-more-sophitsticated)  
bot wars

Dave - I'd like to ask Spaf, whose opinions on this subject are  
important, to amplify and to explain what he means in the following  
paragraphs:
> It's unfortunate that (for "political" reasons) every report on the  
> topic that bubbles up to high levels suggests that if only we  
> coordinate enough and invest enough, we can patch the current  
> steaming pile in some way.
>
> No report points out that the people responsible have been told that  
> this can't work but they continue with business as usual.  No one  
> reports that we continue to throw good money after bad by buying and  
> deploying the same gunk that got us in this mess.
1. In particular, what is the "same gunk"?  It's easy for me to  
imagine which things he means to be: "operating systems that offer  
services whose authentication and security models were never designed  
properly" (e.g. Windows File Sharing), and "security solutions that  
are based on assumptions about physical topology that are clearly  
false" (inside the firewall =no bad guys,. outside the firewall=bad  
guys), and finally, an unfortunate lack of attention to principles  
like the "principle of least privilege" in all systems.

2. I'm not sure who "the people responsible" are.   Do you mean the  
Chief Executive Officers of corporations?  The US government has no  
office in charge of citizen or corporate security.   NSA is  
responsible for DoD security, as far as I can tell.  And my local  
police department is responsible for holding criminals accountable to  
laws.

It would be a great contribution to society were Spaf and others to  
write down a plan that would help Americans feel safe against  
intrusions into their lives that are unwanted and unwelcome.





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