Previous messages: http://www.politechbot.com/p-04405.html http://www.politechbot.com/p-04404.html --- From: <mimimat_private> Reply-To: mimiat_private To: <declanat_private> CC: <aamolschat_private> Subject: Regulation vs. simpler solutions Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:35:33 -0500 Hurrah for you, Declan! Let's assume the best of Mr. Clarke. Assume he is not seeking to inflate his own importance and fatten the funding of his own and his friends'dot.gov fiefdoms. Nevertheless, his embrace of "new, intrusive, and arguably unwarranted regulations," (as you so aptly put it) is still frightening. Clarke desribed the problem: "The events of the last weekend demonstrate yet again how vulnerable our society is to cyberspace attacks. The Sapphire Worm was essentially a dumb worm that was easily and cheaply made. It attacked only one vulnerability on one piece of software from one vendor for one type of machine. Moreover, that vulnerability was one for which a patch had been available for many months. Nonetheless, the results of the worm were significant." This Cyberspace "attack," like most that have preceded it, is much simpler than Clarke makes it and can probably be prevented in the future with a far less intrusive mechanism than the proposals for the government to seize control of the internet (if that is even possible). Occam's Razor is helpful: from a set of otherwise equivalent models of a given phenomenon choose the simplest one -- "shave off" those concepts, variables or constructs that are not really needed to explain the phenomenon. Most, if not all, of these problems have involved vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Windows operating system (or MS Excel, or MS Outlook). So -- why not just an executive order or GSA procurement regulation requiring the federal government (and advising anyone else who doesn't want to be held hostage to Microsoft's vulnerabilities) to invest no more than N% of its computer resources in one vendor's equipment or software? Use the independent Linux operating system (in addition to or instead of Windows or its Microsoft progeny. Use PCs, sure. But buy some Macs as well. Use portable web servers that can be used on any platform (personal computer-based, mid-range, mainframe). If the government refused to invest itself so completely in monopolies or near-monopolies, this would not be nearly the problem it is now. Mimi Madden (for more on Occam's Razor, see http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/OCCAMRAZ.html) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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