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Re: Perl Co-inventor Convicted

In article <3vl6a9$quo@jusdnews.fir.fbc.com>,
Mike Fischbein <mfischbe@fir.fbc.com> wrote:
>Alec Muffett (alecm@coyote.uk.sun.com) wrote:
>: In article <1995Jul31.163126@sdg.dra.com> sean@sdg.dra.com (Sean Donelan) writes:
>
>:  >Well, I would be a tad upset if I discovered a security guard I had
>:  >hired was picking locks on the building he was supposed to be guarding.
>
>: Even if he already had the keys, and could freely walk from one side
>: of the door to the other ?
>
>How about a guard who was duplicating the keys
>so as to have their very own, personal set that
>you didn't know about?
>

You know, there are about 5 million 'what if' scenarios you can go through to
make the outcome seem as though what he did was good or bad but it doesn't
change what actually happened.  He cracked one of their machines, Intel knows
about it, the machine is more secure now, he (supposedly) didn't take or view
anything he shouldn't have, Intel should at least thank the guy for showing 
them a weakness in their system.  Several years ago when I first got into
system administration as an undergrad I had a friend come in through tftp and
grab my entire password file.  He then called me and told me what he had done.
Did I call the cops on him?  Have him arrested?  Tell the university to take
his account away?  I didn't really like the fact that he had done it (face it,
it made me look pretty stupid to have a hole that big and that simple) but
what I got out of it was a much more secure machine.  After that incident I
began looking for every security related document I could find and read it.

Lets be done with the 'what if' crap.  If Intel wants to fire him for cracking
the password file without permission, then that is their right (although I
agree it is stupid to do so).  If Intel wants to make themselves look like 
even bigger idiots than they already do (Pentium bug which they 'ignored')
then that is fine with me too.  It looks like most of us (at least, those who
are posting on the subject) agree that what he did was at least within reason
and was beneficial to Intel.  If you don't agree, then say so.  Just don't 
use some hypothetical situation to justify your reasons.

Larry


-- 
Larry Glaze				|	"...Life's a bummer..."	
The Ohio State University		|		--Smashing Pumpkins
glaze.6@osu.edu				|
http://rclsgi.eng.ohio-state.edu/~glaze	|All opinions are my own, blah, blah...
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