Re: NY Times: Time to build a new Internet?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dennis Allison <drallison () gmail com>
Date: February 16, 2009 6:01:50 PM EST
To: dave () farber net, David Akin <jdakin () gmail com>
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] NY Times: Time to build a new Internet?

Dave Farber: For IP if you think appropriate.

David Akin,

I think your post in response to John Markoff's "Time to build a new  
Internet?" article contains several errors and misconceptions.

All of the quoted experts (Nick McKeown, Eugene Spafford, Steve  
Savage) hold academic research positions and are not trying to "sell  
[...] software to protect you against that [Internet security]  
danger".  Rich Wesson's Support Intelligence sells a monitor which  
detects bot activity, which might be of interest if you were running a  
significant network of machines; since you do not, you are not really  
his market.  His comments are significant because he is able to  
aggregate observed behavior across a multiplicity of networks, and  
those results are disturbing.  You may want to listen to Rick Wesson's  
June 6, 2007 Stanford EE Computer Systems Colloquium talk; the video  
can be found a http://ee380.stanford.edu.spring- 
schedule-20072008.html. Details on the Stanford Clean Slate program  
can be found at http://cleanslate.stanford.edu.

For the record, I am a Lecturer in Stanford's EE Department.  John  
Markoff is a Visiting Lecturer at Stanford and teaches occasional  
courses in the Department of Communications.  At Stanford, the  
Department of Communications focuses on journalism and human  
communication, not the electronic variety of communication.  I am  
curious about what standard of disclosure you believe in that would  
require him, a journalist, to disclose that relationship.

As for your personal security experience, you have been very lucky.    
Anyone who administrates a handful of servers or supports friends who  
are not computer fascile, can tell you their security nightmares.  It  
is a jungle out there.



On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 7:51 AM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Akin <jdakin () gmail com>
Date: February 14, 2009 10:43:44 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: NY Times: Time to build a new Internet?

Hi Dave --

I think John Markoff is such a tremendous reporter that in at least  
one job interview, but probably more, when asked what reporters I  
admire, Markoff is one of two I list.   But when you write a story  
about how dangerous the Internet has become ["Do We Need a New  
Internet? - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/weekinreview/15markoff.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss 
 ] and cite as your sources for that observation people who will sell  
you software to protect you against that danger, well, I begin to  
wonder. Markoff also cites some researchers at Stanford, which is  
certainly a school that's produced a lot of computer and telecom  
innovations but it's also the school Markoff teaches at. (That point  
is not disclosed in the piece.)



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