Re: Did Sean Gorman's maps show the cascading vulnerability in Ohio?

["Mr. James W. Laferriere" <babydr () baby-dragons com>]

        Hello Scott ,

On Mon, 18 Aug 2003, Scott McGrath wrote:
> A measured response is needed.  Obviosly we do not want the
> vulnerabilities disclosed to bored teenagers looking for "excitement".
> We need controlled access to this data so that those of us who need the
> data to fix vulnerabilities can gain access to it but access is denied to
> people without a legitimate need for the data.
        And my statement would be ,  And who is that authority ?
        The government ?  The Utilities ?  The ... ?

> The "Dig Safe" program might be a good model for controlling access to
> Sean's work.   This would not preclude further scholarship on Sean's work
> but it would keep the data out of the hands of the 31337 crowd.
        Huh ?,  Try this on for size ,  "Hello ,  I am joe's contracting
        service & I have a building permit(I do) and I need to dig at ..."
        If I remeber correctly the "Dig Safe" program will give me the
        info without so much as a check on the permit or my company name .

        But ,  Something (may) need to be put in place .  I for one am not
        a great fan of any group of "X" that has a vested interest in
        keeping the information out of the public hands as being the ones
        to administer or setup or even give suggestions to a body who'd be
        involved in setting up such a commitee/org./...

        I'd really like to see a "Public" forum be used to take
        suggestions from the PUBLIC (ie: you & I & that neighbor you hate
        so well) for the guide lines as to who &/or when such info s/b
        released .  Not the Gov. or the Util Alone .

> On Sun, 17 Aug 2003, Sean Donelan wrote:
> > So, the US Government wants to classify Sean Gorman's student project.
> > The question is did Mr. Gorman's maps divulge the vulnerability in the
> > East Coast power grid that resulted in the blackouts this week?
> > Would it be better to know about these vulnerabilities, and do something
> > about them; or is it better to keep them secret until they fail in a
> > catastrophic way?
                Twyl ,  JimL
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