From: Reg Harbeck <rharbeck@freenet.calgary.ab.ca>
Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 17:40:29 +0800
To: lacc@suburbia.net>
Subject: Re: LACC:       Re: Tales from the UK: Basel Part IV
In-Reply-To: <199606251952.MAA13356@toad.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.92.960625225052.34342A-100000@srv1.freenet.calgary.ab.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Time to insert a cautionary thought into this whole Info-war HERFsteria:

I'm just an EDP Security Specialist with 10 years experience in
Mainframe, PC and Network systems, and not some great expert with an
international reputation to protect, so take this for what it's worth.

However, I get the impression that there are some pretty smart people on
these lists.  You know, the kind of people who, when you say, "someone
just did the impossible," will figure out how they did it to solve the
mystery.  And there are also some people who like to look pretty smart by
going around and saying the kind of things that those pretty smart people
figured out, in order to enhance their reputation and keep their audiences
worried.  And there might even be people who'd be inclined to go out and
try those things that the pretty smart people figured out.

So, let's say that some public wanna-be-smart decides that they need to
scare people with stories of evil things that might be done, and so they
post a story of how they've already been claimed to be done, just to see
how the really-are-smart folks respond.  And then they go and take all
that free stuff and make a bundle off of it, and maybe hackers use it,
and, well, you get the idea.

Now, I'm not saying anyone on these lists does any of this stuff, 'cuz I
don't know.  But when it gets to speculation, well, maybe lets just say
the bogeyman did it, with help from his evil hacker friend Foobar.  It's a
lot safer, and maybe just as true.

-----
$0.02

- Reg Harbeck     (URL: http://www.freenet.calgary.ab.ca/~rharbeck)