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From: bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: trash message from usenet (BIFF)
Message-ID: <9006032123.AA24213@world.std.com>
Date: 3 Jun 90 21:23:01 GMT
References: <23824@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 52


>The notion that mail or mailing lists on the Internet are either
>"secure" or "accountable" is simply hysterical.
>	-Mike

I agree, the loudest arguments here appear to be non-sequitars and
"truisms" searching desparately for some pre-determined conclusion.

What I suspect is really at work here is an underlying argument that
"dial-up UUCP is cheap, therefore it must be (security-wise)
inferior".

In fact, those dial-ups require valid login/password pairs before any
delivery is made in virtually every case. The problem actually stems
from abuse of internet software, SMTP and other protocols are
completely vulnerable in much the same way.

But so what?

So is your telephone, what stops me from rigging a box to dial
hundreds of homes in the area at 3AM and play a tape of obscenities?
Say from a pay phone or direct tap (which is analogous to this forgery
stuff), etc. Hell, people do similar things legally around here (those
auto-dialers that tell me to dial this 900 number right now to win my
"free prize"), tho not at 3AM (lord help me if I work nights,
however.)

In the end what we really have to deal with is what standards we are
willing to be measured by.

If we put forth the image that the only reasonable network is one
where it's impossible to post an obnoxious message, ever, and then
communicate that to the public as a minimum standard of viability,
then the technology is doomed, because we will never be able to
deliver that.

This is very critical, and I think many of these protests are
demanding undesirable expectations as if they were tacit and agreed to
by everyone.

They're not, and I still consider my house locked up when I have only
glass in my windows. And I'm willing to put up with the occasional
obnoxious phone call if it keeps phone service easy to use and
inexpensive, or at least deal with it on a per incident basis, etc.

Somewhere in here is a classic exercise in the trade-offs of freedom
vs. security.

        -Barry Shein

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