On or about 9/29/03 7:13 PM Jim DeWitt ever-so-carefully typed:
>One thing I haven't seen mentioned in this thread is the culpability of
>the folks - mostly Microsoft, yes - who leave security holes that the
>little script kiddies and other criminals can use for their crimes.
Ah, yes...
May I pile on here?
While I'm not crazy about it (I've cleaned up a fair bit of
graffiti in my time) it's a given that kids will experiment
with nefarious stuff sometimes - often not even understanding
what they're getting into, what trouble they're causing. I
mean, I never did, but some kids do... right? And sometimes
they even eventually recognize their foolishness and
eventually even regret it... right?
A problem with computers is that, if things aren't properly
designed, with more than a teensy bit of thought to security,
(or an understanding of the definition of the word) it gives
some of those young experimenters (or not-so-young
experimenters) very powerful toys with which to play,
anonymously, on a very large, complex, challenging,
interactive playground. For a few of them, I suspect it's a
bit like discovering that, with some study of the mechanisms,
you *really can* - by pushing on this release lever, removing
the hot pink water tank, and sliding this inexpensive, olive-
green, customizing kit into place - convert your Water Bazooka
into a real Weapon of Mass Disfunction.
Then comes Microsoft(R), a company that wants to present it all
as "Expedient" or "Cool" or "Cute" or "Productive" or "Exciting",
designing their various soft-wares with all their Cool
spiffiness turned-on-and-ready, so that no knowledge *appears*
to be needed on the part of any end-user... Just pump the pump
and squirt. It's all just Expediently There, by default, all
magically ready to display the Cute little arm-waving snowman;
all ready to run the Cool little macro that colors all the type
blue after the Cute pink shark splashes the Cool water on it;
all ready to execute the Expedient commands which - like
writing Cute yellow epithets in the snow - spray copies of the
Exciting little Worm to every address in the Cool user's address
book, with each return address Expediently spoofed as the
previous address to which the Cute little Worm was sent. "Very
Cool... and so Expedient!" the young hacker exclaimed Excitedly.
"Understanding computers makes me Productive!"
Then comes Blaster Worm. No more need for clumsy old email to
replicate itself. Nosiree, it uses an Expedient Internet port -
meant for a service which, Microsoft(R) tells us, is even More
Exciting: Windws Messenger Service[TM], purring under the hood
of every shining, chrome-plated, late-model... [um - where was I
again......] Oh, right! Port 135, that Cute little almond-shaped
port, mounted right there on the back panel of your Internet
Experience, deftly left open - with the Cool, Expedient software,
residing in the Windows(R) operating system, waiting expectantly
to connect with, and satisfy, your most Exciting and private...
[um, oops... where was I...] oh yes, Right! I'll be darned if
they didn't leave that cute little port all ready and waiting,
*OPEN BY DEFAULT!!* So at first, it was only the little
annoying-but-not-too-cloying pop-up spam that would appear,
unbidden, right on the desktop. But, no problem really... just
look at all this other other Cool... um... hmmm.......?:
I wonder what MSBlast means?
And Microsoft(R) - bless their Cute, Productive little hearts -
can, somehow, with apparent Expedience, rationalize that it
doesn't matter because if we didn't leave that door open the
Cute little hackers would just find another one and besides it
really can't or wouldn't or shouldn't or couldn't matter anyway
because we certainly can't or or wouldn't or shouldn't or
couldn't ask our users to learn to anything like: how to turn a
port on, much less *off* - why would anyone want to do *that* and
miss the Exciting, Expedient Internet Experience we planned for
them?. And anyway it's not our problem, not our fault, really...
[at which point the argument Expdiently begins to repeat in an
infinitely Cute loop, but with really Cool, virtually Productive
little changes, introduced just often enough that Micosoft(R),
itself, continues believing that things really *are* More and
Better and Exciting after *The Upgrade* and thereby avoids
falling *completely* to sleep.]
So, just who *is* the Criminal here? Could it be the Cute,
Expedient, Productive company that sells *such* an Exciting-yet-
Defective product, despite the protestations of computer
security experts, whose predictions - while they certainly are
*overly dire* - somehow manage to come to pass anyway....
[um... where.. . ?] Oh, sorry. Um, yes, back to the question...
Could it be[?] that it's:
Microsoft(R)!
"The Big Cute Company Without the Decency to Be Embarrassed!"[TM]!
"No other product this defective so widely sold!"[SM]
Outlook Express(R) is a registered trademark of... oops -
you didn't *open* this email in Outlook Express(R), did
you? Because, bless their Cute, Productive little hearts -
can, somehow, with apparent Expedience, rationalize that it
doesn'tmatterbecauseifwedidn'tleavethatdooropen... . . . .
. . . . . . .
. . . .
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