RE: Forrester Research foresees death of firewalls

[sean.kelly () lanston com]

> From: Robert Graham [mailto:robert_david_graham () yahoo com]
> Subject: Re: Forrester Research foresees death of firewalls
>
> This reminds me of a lecture I once attended about bridge 
> building. The
> idea is that bridges are always overbuilt in a very conservative
> manner. 
>
> As time goes on, builders gain confidence (because none of the bridges
> are failing) and take more risks (fewer materials, longer spans, etc.)
> until POOF a bridge fails, then the go back into conservative mode.
>
> I predict companies go through this same cycle. People get more and
> more fed up with the authoritarian, conservative attitude of the
> security admins and demand more and more "exciting" applications until
> POOF they are hacked, then they duck their heads down again for a
> couple years.

This sounds like a typical model for human behavior in general.  I'll bet
there are a zillion historical examples of this.

I actually read some interesting study on sapient culture a while ago.  They
talked about how there are all different behavior types in a culture -- you
have the alpha males etc. as well as a handful of Paranoid Types.  When
things go Terribly Wrong the alpha males tend to panic which is when the
paranoid subclass (who are normally somewhat of outcasts) step in and sort
everything out.  Since the paranoid ones are paranoid all the time, they
tend to function optimally when things are going Terribly Wrong.  As soon as
everything is all sorted out, things go back to normal and after a short
time the paranoids are again pushed to the fringe.

As for bridge building -- seeing that one bridge in WA turn into the largest
physical example of a standing wave I've ever come across and subsequently
tumble into whatever river it was spanning should be enough of a reason to
justify putting a bit of thought into proper bridge design.  If there are
any engineers out there I'm sure they've seen the film I'm referring to :)


Sean