Xref: utzoo news.sysadmin:1446 alt.flame:3091
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!cpsc6a!atl2!akgua!att!rutgers!mailrus!cornell!rochester!uhura.cc.rochester.edu!ur-valhalla!deke
From: deke@socrates.ee.rochester.edu (Dikran Kassabian)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin,alt.flame
Subject: Re: "Morris did it"--the new excuse?
Message-ID: <1585@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu>
Date: 14 Nov 88 18:10:38 GMT
References: <552@comdesign.CDI.COM> <1570@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu> <16915@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender: usenet@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu
Reply-To: deke@socrates.ee.rochester.edu (Dikran Kassabian)
Organization: UR Dept. of Electrical Engg, Rochester NY 14627
Lines: 41
Summary: "It's OK, I really didn't mean any harm" --the worn out excuse


In article <16915@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu
	(Obnoxious Math Grad Student) writes:
>In article <1570@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu>, deke@ee.rochester.edu writes:
>>Scientists and researchers at a university like mine were unable to use
>>their computers and network links during the virus attack, and lost
>>valuable time.  As always, some were up against deadlines and may well
>>be hindered now in their chances for getting results before a confer-
>>ence, or in getting a grant proposal out before deadlines.
>
>If someone has a grant proposal riding on get-
>ting something done by a certain deadline, what happens if there's a
>major disk crash at your site?

We restore it onto a machine with a good disk and work goes on.  The 
advantage of a nice, big, distributed computing environment. The fact that 
we have lots of computers and near perpetual, automated backups allows our
users to be reasonably certain that at least some compute facilities will be
available to them.  But that has nothing to do with it.  

>>The medical center/teaching hospital at my university is also network
>>connected.  What if the network overload caused patient monitoring systems
>>there to be sluggish and inadequate?  Would that be OK because Mr. Morris
>>"did not do it on purpose"?  As it turns out, this was not a problem here,
>>but it's not out of the question... it could have happened somewhere.
>
>I find it frightening
>that hospitals exist which have perhaps decided to rely heavily on some
>computers working according to a perfect schedule.  Don't you?

I would find it frightening if it were the case.  It was not, as I pointed
out... but you didn't pay attention.  My point was, and is, this little gift
from Mr. Morris Jr. cannot be considered completely benign unless it was
known in advance that it could cause no real harm.  He couldn't have known
that.  Neither could you, and neither could anyone else.


>ucbvax!garnet!weemba	Matthew P Wiener/Brahms Gang/Berkeley CA 94720

      ^Deke Kassabian,   deke@ee.rochester.edu   or   ur-valhalla!deke
   Univ of Rochester, Dept of EE, Rochester, NY 14627     (+1 716-275-3106)