From: Kevin L Prigge <Kevin.L.Prigge-2@cis.umn.edu>
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 13:09:13 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: .PWL spin
In-Reply-To: <199512151829.KAA13449@jobe.shell.portal.com>
Message-ID: <30d1d41c0e04002@noc.cis.umn.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


According to rumor, anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com said:
> 
> 
> On Sat, 9 Dec 1995, Joel McNamara wrote:
> 
> > One system administrator said the problem would have a greater effect on
> > less-secure environments, such as universities and other institutions,
> > than on corporations.
> 
> I didn't quite understand the "corporate speak" here.  It sounds like
> something coming from Bosnia or something.  It's Greek to me.
> 
> What would make a University less secure than a corporation??

1) Usually more net connected hosts.
2) Lack of adequate sysadmin attention/knowlege.
3) Vague and poorly enforced site security policies.

This is of course a generalization, but corporations seem to
have more money and time to throw at security. On the other 
hand, it's common at Universities to get a new Sun/SGI/whatever,
hook it to the net, and run it without spending a lot of time
configuring it. 

> 
> Universities (at least the ones, I've checked) have entire departments
> and theoreticians devoted to Computers ... companies usually don't.  

Just because a University has a CS department doesn't mean that it
is more secure. Even if security is an area of study, it doesn't
mean that other departments benefit from the research.

> 
> I'd think that Universities are much, much more secure environments than
> corporations are.  Doesn't Microsoft know this??  Or is this unique to
> Seattle?? 

I don't know what University sites you're referring to, my experience
has been that on the average, .edu sites are less secure than .com
sites.

-- 
Kevin L. Prigge        |"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster 
UofM Central Computing | than any invention in human history--with the 
email: klp@umn.edu     | possible exceptions of handguns and tequila."
01001001110101100110001| - Mitch Ratcliffe