<OT> War driveing for dollars....

[Alma J Wetzker]

koko wrote:
> If this is the wrong list to bring this up on please let me know.  I 
> would love to hear any comments by those that work the floor, and those 
> that "manage" between the floor and the executives about how available 
> technology meets up with security.  This would include common sense 
> security all the way to protection of corporate or government 
> information.   To my dismay, I have found that younger people are not 
> always necessarily adept with technology.  The point has been driven 
> home with one of my children.  When I try to train and educate when they 
> encounter a problem on my home network, some want to learn, and some 
> treat me like a pizza guy or a plumber.  "Fix it and go away".  The 
> exact same situation exists with some of our executives.  10 years ago, 
> I was hoping that as younger people accessed technology, my security 
> concerns would begin to go away.  I thought they would understand more, 
> realize the dangers etc.   Its worse than ever, with PDAs, Blackberrys, 
> accessing corporate/govt information from home, and so on.  Its all out 
> of the bag.  Most of the time, I feel that I'm fighting a losing 
> battle.  Education of the users is the ONLY hope, in my mind.  But if 
> they don't want to learn....  Sadly, most of them either don't have the 
> inclination to understanding the technology they are wielding, or they 
> just don't have the time.  They somehow believe that with all the 
> packets whizzing around the Internet, theirs won't be noticed.  Risk 
> mitigation is not a means to an end.  Or do I have a skewed perspective 
> on all this?   

The younger generation seem to have a corrolary to Clarke's law:  Any 
technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

I believe that what we are seeing is technology so specialized that even 
a technically inclined generalist has a minimal chance of figuring it 
out, at best.  There is WAY too much of that in daily life.  There are 
MANY things that I used to be able to fix that are beyond my skills or 
ability to buy needed equipment.  People respond to that by Just Using 
the Damned Thing (tm) and ignoring the implications, it is too easy (and 
cheap) to replace.

Why do you think the emphasis has moved to traditional "con man" skills 
to extract information?  The bad guys are no more technically competent 
than the average person.  You have a very small cadre of brilliant 
technophiles releasing virus kits and cracks for all to use.  People 
will always be the weakest link.  Good luck fixing that...

     -- Alma