It's Your Fault I Gashed Your Tires



There are many ethical and theological theories in the world, and the world should be a big enough place to allow most of them. Most of these theories have to deal with identifying what is good and what is bad, and subsequently appropriate awards and punishments for the accompanying actions. Philosophers through the ages have tried to deal with the ultimate identification of such issues.

Aristotle rejected the belief that happiness is found in pleasure or wealth and held that happiness and pleasure derive from virtuous activity. Moral virtue being the mean between the vices of excess and deficiency, while intellectual virtue is found in contemplation. Mills, on the other hand, stated that happiness is pleasure and that happiness was the absence of pain. He continued however that "Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

The list of philosophers and their statements on this subject is long and varied. But what all agree upon is that right actions are deserving of reward (the intrinsic value of those actions may indeed be the reward) and that wrong actions should be punished.

As a society, at least until recently, we have held this belief. We have also held that, in certain circumstances, wrong actions may in fact be considered right actions if the greater good is served. For example, if you must kill someone to prevent others from being killed, then a jury of your peers makes a decision regarding whether or not your actions were justified - and if so, typically little punishment is levied.

This is not the case however in the electronic world, a world in which wrong actions - however well intended - may have far more devastating results. In this world, we allow persons across the world to wreak havoc on our electronic systems with nary a care for the results. Unless the results reach into the billions of dollars in damages, we accept the actions of those individuals as a part of doing business in the electronic community. We say that it is simply too difficult to track down these sociopathic criminals and blanketly accept their defense - that it was our fault for letting them commit their crimes of destruction. We used weak passwords on our computers, we did not apply the latest operating system patches, we did not purchase the latest ant-virus utility and on and on and on.

We need stronger laws regarding the protection of our electronic systems. What is going on today is ludicrous. It's like saying - hey, you left your car out in the open so I slashed your tires to prove a point. Until you get 24x7 protection for your vehicle, it's not safe from my destruction and that my friend, is your fault.

Now, I like movies and television. They are a nice detraction from the reality of daily life. And such an argument to me is nothing short of what I, or anyone, would see in some classic gangster movie. Or in mafia history for that matter. How many times have we heard the old cliche of forcing some poor young business that is just trying to get buy, into buying fire insurance so that nothing 'unexpectedly happens'? I know, it's corny but when you think about it it's not that far off from what these electronic gangsters are doing.

They spread viruses because they can. They hack into our systems and deface websites because they can. They do this, sometimes in jest and sometimes with malicious intent. In the end, it is no different and it should be handled the same as any other crime of intent.

Unfortunately this is not what we do. We turn malcontents like Kevin Mitnick into folk heros. That's the real tragedy. Kevin is now a security consultant. That's like making my mafia friend noted above the chief of the local fire-station!

Common! When are we going to pull our heads out and get our congressmen and senators to realize that there are a couple realities in the computing world.

1) The only safe computer is one that is not connected to anything.
2) Anyone who can gain physical access to a computer and own it.

That being said - no amount of twisting reality can change reality. No computer user can be expected to be a complete master of all things security. Most people these days need their computers for any number of things and those users should be able to be free from the fear that their records will be modified, their identities stolen or their data destroyed by one of these children who failed to grow up and join society.

Otherwise, don't be surprised when I show up in court and explain to the Judge, "Hey, it was their fault I slashed their tires - they left their car unattended."




Posted: Sun - November 21, 2004 at 07:23 PM   If this blog entry was of use to you, why not show your appreciation by donating to support the site? Just click on the MAKE A DONATION button on the right hand side of the page! It's all handled by PAYPAL.
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