Re: Adam Savage talks about Mythbuster attempt at RFIDa bit more on

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu
Date: September 3, 2008 6:07:22 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Adam Savage talks about Mythbuster attempt at  
RFIDa bit more on

On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:20:08 EDT, Tice DeYoung said:

>   I never cease to be amazed by companies (and governments)  that
> think they can hide the  security problems in their products and
> devices by burying under injunctions, gag orders, etc. those who are
> trying to expose the faults in order to make the products better and
> also to help people protect their privacy, finances, et al.  Do they
> really think that the black hat hackers won't find the same security
> holes, but not tell anyone about them?  Will they ever learn?

More likely, they already *have* learned, and are actually following the
most reasonable course when looked at from a profit-loss standpoint.

They can invest a few hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in a  
legal team
to send intimidating cease-and-desist letters (how much can a form  
letter C&D
cost?), plus swallow the 0.05% or whatever fraud rate (I'm sure the  
RFID fraud
is *swamped* by all the other identity theft channels - spyware,  
dumpster
diving, snail-mailbox theft, etc).

Or they can let the news get out, at which point they have to swallow
two very big costs:

1) The cost of going back and doing it *right* (or at least "more right
than last time"), which will almost certainly be higher than their  
current
cost.

2) The *very* high cost that the publicity will bring.  Remember that  
the
*only* reason that the entire credit card industry works is because the
consumers *trust* it to work properly most of the time.  A Visa or  
Mastercard
that the person doesn't trust anymore is just a piece of plastic...

Given those options, security-via-intimidation suddenly looks really  
good...




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