Aucbcory.222
net.followup
utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:CAD:ESVAX:Cory:c153-3ad
Wed Mar 10 14:17:58 1982
Universities and Security
Presumably the San Francisco Examiner would instruct all CS professors
to instruct their students to stop all behavior oriented towards break-
ing security. Well,
[1] As long as computers run reasonably powerful operating
systems, security holes will exist.
[2] Many such holes cannot be fixed until thy are found by
users in the field.
[3] Someone, somewhere, will always be trying to find these
holes.
Hence, it's much better to find holes on systems without real money
(i.e., bank systems) like University computers then to wait for some
particular hole to be found by an embezzler. The (re)discovery of
the Block Retransmit hole actually ENHANCES computer security.
The counter-argument, that if "students don't find these holes, nobody
will", sounds like the "if we pass gun control laws, criminals will
voluntarily turn in their guns" line to me: hopelessly naive.
Michael Chastain
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