RE: [inbox] Re: CyberInsecurity: The cost of Monopoly

[Paul Schmehl <pauls () utdallas edu>]

--On Monday, September 29, 2003 19:30:24 -0600 Bruce Ediger 
<eballen1 () qwest net> wrote:
> I realize you're from Texas and everything, but are you nuts?
> An 8-year old with a handgun should cause vast feelings of insecurity
> in you, with or without proper training on her part.
Hmmm...I am from Texas, and I can tell you that many an eight year old 
learns to handle firearms down here.  Not all of Texas is citified, you 
know.  We still have a lot of open range with coyotes and ground hogs and 
other things to shoot at.

> Besides that, what do you mean by "proper safety training" for a computer
> used?  If you mean the failed "don't click on any attachments, don't
> open email from someone you don't know" recipe-style of training, then no
> to that too.
No, I meant proper security training.  Is that so hard to understand? 
Regardless of the OS, every user should know how and why to patch.  Every 
user should understand what social engineering is, how to detect it and 
what to do about it.  Every user should understand physical security, 
locking your workstation, why you should logout and when, etc., etc.  Every 
user should understand the basics of malicious code, how to spot it, what 
to do about it, how to recognize hoaxes, where the resources are when they 
need help.

Without user training and an educated user community, no security program 
can ever hope to succeed.

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu

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