I was interviewed last week by a Chicago computer magazine about network and host security. Most of it revoled around correcting the general misconceptions about all to evil hackers who are exploiting esoteric code to gain access to systems — the fact, of course, is most security breaches occur because of misconfigured or unpatched systems which are exploited by script-kiddies, or are the result of the deadly combination of Microsoft IE and Outlook. Anyway, the discussion of Security through Obscurity came up, and I was reminded of past attempts to achieve the same goal through the same means. The Pharoes tried this tactic and killed their tomb builders to ensure security — didn’t work well in that senario either. Perhaps we should follow and kill app developers so as to hide thier secrets. . . . . One is about as silly as the other. Only by allowing source code to be reviewed and tested, can real app security be a goal, because sooner or later someone will stumble across your tomb . . . .
‘See the Story A number of major record labels have decided to sue AT&T Broadband Corp., Cable & Wireless USA, Wireless, Sprint Corp ., Advanced Network Services and UUNET in an effort to get them stop routing traffic to a site in China offering free mp3s. I find this very disturbing, as suggests that global routing policiies are now subject to the whims of copyright holders. If the plantiffs are successful, this sets a frightening precendent where backbone service providers become the executioners of copyright law.
One need only look at the current implemtation of spam policies to realize it is far easier and efficient to block entire networks then a single host. As a network Op, I do not look forward to recieving a list of blocked sites from the RIAA on a weekly basis, mandating what routes I may or may not carry. But to avoid this I will have to become the copyright policeman trolling my network for infringments and cutting off those who potentially have copyrighted material posted. The entertainment industry’’s fixation on copyright infringement has led it to call for a mandate that all digital equiptment and software manufactures restrict the ability to copy data, they have restricted the developemnt of open encoding systems for video, and now wish to control global information availability. No matter what you may feel about artist’’s rights under the existing copyright system, these continued attempts to limit access will eventually be extened to critical information. How long will it be before a network or website is shutdown because it contains a document critical of some entity who claims copyright infringment? The Church of Scientology has been successfuly using this tactic for some time to sacre critics. And one can easily see how it can be adopted by corperations, political organizations, and governemts.\r\n\r\nCopyright has indeed become the new tool of censorship.
