Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Re: The home user problem returns
From: tbird () precision-guesswork com
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 19:36:59 -0700
Quoting Elizabeth Zwicky <zwicky () greatcircle com>:
On Sep 13, 2005, at 12:23 PM, Tina Bird wrote:i disagree. i don't know *anyone* who willingly makes a fundamental, significant change in their behavior without pain as a motivator.On the one hand, I agree with Tina -- people change their OWN behavior based on their OWN pain. On the other hand, this insight leads people to some terrible attempts at training, because people (dogs, cats, octopus, anything with a brain of reasonable size) do not respond effectively to imposed pain. Positive training methods always work better on long-term measures.
correct, as we expect from elizabeth :-) most of the time when i'm presenting the use of endpoint enforcement techniques to system administrators (the folkswho will be managing the systems) and their end users, i start by describing it
as a reward system for proper configuration, rather than a punishment system against incorrect or compromised configurations. it's the same as the artificial ignorance approach to log management, or good ol' deny all firewall rules. the list of "things that absolutely ought to be configured this way" is shorter than the list of all possible things that should be prohibited. so of *course* most folks won't want to do that. unfortunately, i am consistently told by marketing folks and journalists that rewarding the right behavior isn't sexy enough to be newsworthy. apparently selling "a kick ass system for maintaining proper system config, and simplifying enterprise desktop management" doesn't work - but "scan and block" or "worm preventers" or "quarantine solutions" will. i think it's absurd, thatstupid reactive approach to life. it was much easier to get the UNIX sys admins
to adopt security mechanisms by pointing out how much easier they make system management, but apparently that's not always a good sell for the desk top folks. i don't get it. tbird _______________________________________________ firewall-wizards mailing list firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com http://honor.icsalabs.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
Current thread:
- RE: The home user problem returns, (continued)
- RE: The home user problem returns Brian Loe (Sep 22)
- Re: The home user problem returns R. DuFresne (Sep 13)
- Re: The home user problem returns Mason Schmitt (Sep 13)
- RE: The home user problem returns Tina Bird (Sep 13)
- Re: The home user problem returns Mason Schmitt (Sep 13)
- RE: The home user problem returns Tina Bird (Sep 13)
- Re: The home user problem returns Mason Schmitt (Sep 14)
- Re: The home user problem returns Chris Blask (Sep 22)
- RE: The home user problem returns Sanford Reed (Sep 13)
- Re: The home user problem returns Elizabeth Zwicky (Sep 27)
- Re: The home user problem returns tbird (Sep 27)