Gary,
What is the difference between Joe Shmoe with a DSL line and a personal
firewall or a small grocery store with a DSL line and a personal firewall
that orders from their vendor online? Neither network is "secure". Can
that small grocery store afford all of the things required to create a
secure network? That grocery store probably can't even get someone to set
up a secure network for them.
#By that argument wouldn't it be legitimate for an airline not to provide
#proper airplane maintenance because its complex and expensive?
How many people died from the last Yahoo DDOS attack? I think there is a
big difference between losing any amount of money and losing a human life
so you really can't compare the two.
#Or a radio station not to properly monitor their out of frequency
emissions,
#power output, and distortion because its expensive and complicated?
The governemnt has decided to regulate frequencies and require licenses to
operate within those frequencies. A much better example here would be cell
phones. A cell phone also uses frequencies but the manufacturer is
responsible for making sure that the cell phone stays withing those
frequencies not the cell phone user. AS long as I do not modify the cell
phone outside of the bounderies of the manual I can expect that cell phone
to stay within FCC regulations. The government can do two things
1) Require licenses and create laws for security requirements to be on the
Internet and revoke Internet privileges for people who don't obey the
rules.
2) Hold software manufacturers responsible.
#Or a factory not to monitor their pollution emissions?
If we monitored and restricted Internet pollution that would get rid of
about 90% of the Internet=) I don't think that this is a valid argument,
either. A factory is creating the pollution. A hacker actually makes a
computer do things that the owner of the computer did not intend for it to
do. What if I break into a factory and destroy the emmission controls with
a bomb is the factory responsible for the pollution or am I?
#What about the "attractive nuisance" argument? If I habitually leave my
#keys in my car next to a playground and a kid climbs in, drives off,
#and hurts someone, am I responsible?
This is a flawed argument. I have a password (the key) for my box but all
of these hackers have tools (lock picks) that allow them to bypass my lock.
Am I responsible for a product that is defective before it reaches my
doorstep? If that kid breaks your window and hotwires the car then you
should not be responsible. Hackers break windows and hotwire cars.
If a small business has a Lynksys router or a personal firewall and
passwords then what else should it be required to have to exist on the
Internet? It still isn't anywhere near secure at least by my definition.
Should we only allow big companies with lots of money and geeks (like
myself) with homebrewed firewalls on the Internet?
Regards,
Jeffery Gieser
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