Re: Just a comment -- MIDRANGE-L

Hello Al Mac,

I always appreciated your comments to this list and now
as a highlight, I'd like to have a copy of your document :-)

Thanks in advance and regards from germany,

Philipp Rusch


MacWheel99@aol.com schrieb:

> > The articles recently about Internet security are interesting and eye
> >  opening
>
> I have been rather frustrated & annoyed with the whole panorama of
>
> a) Vast numbers of users who seem rather ignorant of the risks.
> b) Market demand for cheapest purchase price regardless of other
> considerations.
> c) People who discover flaws with Microsoft & other vendor products who seem
> to think that the correct way to get the flaws fixed is to trumpet them to
> criminals who will write viruses & other malware that exploits those flaws.
> d) Microsoft writes security fixes that are seriously flawed & treats the
> whole thing as a PR exercise, much in the same way that the Ford Bridgestone
> fatal roll-over scandal was treated as an Accounting Liability entry & not a
> quality redesign priority.
> e) Journalists and Computer "experts" who should know better, talking as if
> this is some horrible problem that has no solution or alternative.
>
> I have tried to do my two cents against this situation a number of ways.
> Most recent public effort was
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TYR
> message #s 3258 3261 3293 3314 3341
>
> An earlier effort was via
> http://www.TechRepublic.com/forumdiscuss/thread_detail.jhtml?thread_id=20600
>
> Thanks to some discussion on one of the other midrange.com lists that led to
> some off-line talk about this, I am now headed for a web site that will be a
> FAQ on Computer Security Myths & Common Sense primarily aimed at journalists.
>
> If you are interested, I could send you by e-mail attachment (privately, not
> via the list), a copy of my working Word document MAC MYTHS . DOC ... it is
> about 20 pages long ... here is the table of contents so you can see the
> flavor of what I have been trying to do so far.
>
> Abstract Goals  1
> Illuminating Misconceptions 2
> Quiz Understanding  2
> Who can we trust?   2
> How do we know we got it right? 2
> Multiple Virus Choice   3
> What's wrong with this Virus Viewpoint? 3
> General Computer Security Myths 5
> Do Passwords protect PCs?   5
> Is it Heroic to reveal a Hole in Security?  5
> Is Computer Security an Oxymoron?   7
> Is your PC safe?    8
> Do we just buy good security products & install properly?   9
> Don't Physical Door Locks Protect Us?   10
> Some Wild Ideas to Improve State of Art 11
> Airline Passenger Bar Coding Aids   11
> Legislate not against tools but how they are used   12
> Responsible Security Bug Notification   13
> Computer Security Education 14
> Key Resource Sites  14
> Monthly Info Sec newsletter 14
> The SANS Institute  14
> e-com-sec moderated discussion  14
> CERT    17
> Firewalls   17
> Return on Data  18
> Hacker News Network 19
> More References 19
> The bigger picture  20
> Understanding Computer Protective Legislation   20
> URL References  20
> URLs for Anti-Virus Software Vendors    21
>
> MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)
>
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