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From: bzs@bu-cs.bu.edu (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: GNU, security, and RMS
Message-ID: <19930@adm.BRL.MIL>
Date: 7 Jun 89 23:28:22 GMT
Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL
Lines: 29


Gee, I feel a little like everyone was just looking for someone to
jump all over about the security issue and I stepped right in it.

Remember, I didn't say the 11 Million PC users were right, I just said
that you can't deny their existence (in response to a claim that no
one would buy a system without security, hah!)

The problem is that everyone is naming their favorite "possibly
related to security" issue and offering it as proof that they
need some other vague thing they're referring to as security.

Will someone explain to me exactly how usernames and passwords and
file protections (a not unknown form of security) will protect against
computer viruses?? These are often introduced into the system by
unwitting bona-fide users, hiding in a useful looking program picked
up somewhere.

The point is: Define security.

It's going to have to be a little more concise than "something which
prevents anything evil from ever happening to my computer". That's
where the confusion lies, let's hear your security model, not just a
description of where it hurts.

	-Barry Shein

Software Tool & Die, Purveyors to the Trade
1330 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02146, (617) 739-0202