Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!gnu From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) Newsgroups: alt.hackers Subject: Re: Computer Abuse / Product Liability / Criminal Statutes / ECPA Message-ID: <9738@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 19 Jan 90 10:01:44 GMT References: <22359@usc.edu> <4948@sugar.hackercorp.com> Organization: Grasshopper Group in San Francisco Lines: 34 Approved: Motherhood@apple.pie > ...I think that if he [Robert Morris] > gets off lightly it'll open the floodgates for more disruption: > either through pranks or ill-advised security measures that reduce > the usability of the Internet. Perhaps if Mr. Morris "gets off lightly" (e.g. doesn't get thrown into involuntary servitude or enforced confinement) then more people will have the guts to test Internet security, report problems where they find them, and fix them in appropriate ways. On the other hand, if Mr. Morris loses his freedom, a lot of security problems will go unreported, since who wants to go to jail for telling a stranger that his system is insecure? Best to just keep it to yourself or tell your cracker friends. If the Internet community doesn't provide itself with "well-advised" security measures, what choice does it provide to ignorant oversight agencies but "ill-advised" security measures? Congress and even DARPA are not experts at computer security -- we are. Their jobs are to clean up our act in their own hamhanded way if we don't clean it up for ourselves. But our advice and our actions are too often "security through obscurity" and "just make it illegal so it will go away". Mr. Morris's worm program is 95% of the way to an excellent security testing program -- a watchdog for your network -- that will tell YOU, the system administrator, about any known holes in your net, long before a cracker discovers them. For this he is put on trial and all copies of the source code are locked away. Suuuuuure we believe in computer security and in technical solutions to technical problems. Don't complain when the bureaucrats make your life miserable, you brought it on yourself. -- John Gilmore {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com Just say *yes* to drugs. Say "no" to undeclared wars on sovereign countries.