FC: Report from House subcommittee hearing on LOVE BUG today

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

> Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 13:25:55 -0400
> From: William Allen Simpson <wsimpson () greendragon com>
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Subject: Virus hearing, House Science Subcommittee on Technology
>
> Hearing this morning, with a number of notable events (from my point of
> view).  One early issue is why it took so long for government agencies
> to react.  (You and I know from Sean Donelan's "Alert timeline for
> Love Bug" that the FBI was about 5 hours behind NANOG.)
>
> Weiner (D-NY) was beating up the anti-virus vendors for not
> proactively defending against it.  Rivers (D-MI) asked why we are
> criticizing the bank guards when the Windows were left wide open --
> the self-executing Outlook attachments violate the MIME security
> recommendations (since 1991).
>
> Someone (ICSA, I think) stated that security exploits should never be
> published, and need a restriction on 1st Amendment.
>
> Also, various statements that security information needs to be kept
> proprietary, through various industry associations, and what is
> shared with government should not be subject to FOIA.
>
> Differing opions expressed on whether NIST should be involved in
> setting standards, or should be left to private industry.
>
> Differing opinions on whether breakup of M$ would help or hinder
> detection of security flaws.  (I'm on the help side, as revealing
> the interfaces will benefit from public scrutiny.)
>
> Lots of other self-serving proclaimations that might benefit from your
> jaundiced reporting eye.

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