Reply From: "Russell Coker - mailing lists account" <bofht_private> >How can governments even claim to be worried about foreign penetration of >their computers and "information warfare" and in the same breath consider >passing a bill like this? If we have no means of testing, review or defense >against penetration attacks then we are WIDE OPEN to foreign powers with no >such restrictions. The argument that without our help (to research these >flaws in the first instance, e.g. BugTraq) they would not be able to >penetrate our systems, is entirely flawed because it is based on racist >principles, assuming as it does that foreign nations do not have the >intelligence to discover these security flaws for themselves. Let's face facts, the vast majority of government ministers of all first-world countries are white. I have never on the news seen any government minister of high rank (cabinet minister, holder of an important portfolio, or leader of a major political party) who's not white. I believe that this indicates something about the pre-selection process in these countries or the voting of the citizens. But in such an environment less intelligent people will extrapolate from their situation to the rest of the world (IE "the non-white people around me aren't as successful as me so they and all other non-whites must be less intelligent"), politicians aren't known for being overly bright... >>From what I have read, it appears to me that governments consider an >information warfare attack by outside forces to be far more of a threat than >an attack by their own countrymen. Your citizens at least have some respect >for the country and don't wish to destroy it. I don't think the same can >rationally be said of foreign dictatorships. Hmm. I'm thinking of the Oaklahoma bombing right now. How many foreign governments are there who'd do that? >We cannot deny that security flaws exist in our products. Nor can we deny >that it is in the authors' best interests not to reveal those flaws, since it >is bad for business. If it becomes illegal for neutral third parties such as >the contributors to BugTraq to research and offer solutions to these >problems, then only outlaws and foreign agents will do so. Is that a better >solution? I think not. I hope you agree with me. The NSA and other organizations will still be able to do that sort of research. The reports I hear suggest that normal laws don't really apply to such agencies. >Cheers, Chris. > ___ __ _ > /'__// / ,__(_)_ Wilson <Chris.Wilsont_private> >/ (_ / ,\/ _/ /_ \ Webmaster/SysAdmin/Timelord/BOFH/Programmer >\__//_/_/_//_/___/ "1998 isn't MCMXCVIII. The Romans would have used MIIM" I notice that you too are not from America. I have to admit that although I believe that the crypto laws in the US are wrong, I don't strongly oppose them. I can see the damage that it's doing to the US government and economy, that can only be a good thing for people who don't live in the US. I expect that I'll now get lots of messages from angry Americans who object to this, if you're angry don't tell me, tell your congressman (who can actually help solve the problem). --- I'm an independant computer consultant. I prefer to do Linux administration and programming. OS/2 programming is also fun, and I do sometimes do NT programming. I mainly do C++ programming, but would like to get into Java. This should satisfy the curiosity of those on SERVER-LINUX. -o- Subscribe: mail majordomot_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:57:50 PDT