RE: How Secure is the Series i, really?

Ethics, shmethics. 

My guess is that the main reason that malware is not written for the
System i is that the people qualified to write these are EMPLOYED and
want to stay that way.  Unsecured or under secured systems are hard to
find and harder to get authority to.  They do not exist in dorm rooms on
college campuses.

In my humble opinion anyone with both minimal programming and SysAdmin
skills (and proper access) could easily hide a program on the System i
that would make the system unuseable after any future date or condition.
<-- (Vague by design!)

But I want to keep the job I have and I'm not interested in starting a
"Security" company on the basis of my own notoriety!

Regards,
 
Scott Ingvaldson
System i Administrator
GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company


-----Original Message-----
from: Darrell A Martin <DMartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: How Secure is the Series i, really?

Hi, all:

Ethics, shmethics. People write malware because they get something out
of it -- not rarely, a purely psychological benefit. Empowerment,
revenge, intellectual stimulation, whatever. Monetary gain may or may
not be involved.

The Series i is not targeted by malware programmers, in my not very
humble opinion, mostly because the effort required to get a certain
level of satisfaction is so much greater than it is for other platforms.
First, it is just plain harder to do. Second, even if you were to
succeed your efforts would be about invisible to the general public.

In other words, the smaller installed base is in itself an indirect
protection against attack. If everyone in the world was running a Series
i, we would have daily news bulletins about exploits against the
platform.

"Claimer":  Although I do not play a therapist on TV I do indeed have a
degree in Psychology.

Darrell

Darrell A. Martin  -  630-754-2187
Manager, Computer Operations
dmartin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 01/03/2007 08:03:19 AM:

Is that like saying the manufacturers of nuclear weapons have a higher

level of ethics than the manufacturers of chemical weapons?

I am sorry but I find that "we are holier than them" attitude a little

hard to swallow.

Just my thoughts

Steve