Today, Ken D'Ambrosio gleaned this insight:
> On Mon, 12 Feb 2001, Derek Martin wrote:
>
> > Today, Niall Kavanagh gleaned this insight:
> >
> >
> > > Cars kill millions of people every year. Fortunately we don't HAVE TO use
> > > them.
> > >
> > While you have a valid point, there IS a difference. The vast majority of
> > people who use these wonderful on-line services have NO IDEA that they may
> > be putting themselves at various forms of risk, because they know
> > absolutely NOTHING about the technology. Most people couldn't even
> > concieve of the idea of someone hijacking their encrypted browser session
> > in which they do their banking, for example.
>
> Find me one in ten that drives that can draw a force diagram, or Newton's
> acceleration equations. People hear, seems every day, of another break-in
> (or DoS, which they frequently think is the same thing) at a given site;
> they're aware that there are security risks -- just like they know about
But my contention is that many of them ARE NOT AWARE THERE ARE RISKS. My
sister, for example, fell into that category, until I hinted at some of
them. My suspicion is that the numbers who fall in that category is
significant, which if correct would invalidate your argument.
You don't need to know the detailed workings of the combustion engine, or
Newton's laws, to understand the dangers of driving a car and how to avoid
them (though it may take some practice to get it right). These are ideas
which are reletively simple and mundane. But in order to assess the risks
involved with on-line services, you must know SOMETHING, at least, about
what those risks are, and how they are perpetrated before you can
adequately assess the danger to you. That DOES require some education. I
believe a large number of people who use those services don't have the
information they need to make those decisions. And I believe providers
are all too quick to brush those risks off as highly improbable and
inconsequential, when really they may not be. But as I already said, it
isn't in their interest to educate you, because then you may not want to
use their services, and then they don't make (as much) money, as they may
be forced to provide more expensive alternative services, or lose your
business to someone who does.
This has gotten way away from Linux, and I can't make my point any
clearer, so I'm done posting on this topic.
--
Derek Martin
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