[clug] Secure your Internet facing stuff (was Re: googlebot doing funny things in logs)

[Hugh Fisher]

Alex Satrapa wrote:
> 
> Do you live
>  - near a nuclear reactor? (no, you're not in Lucas Heights)
>  - with electricity supplied through utilities controlled using SCADA (yes, you're in Canberra)
>  - with Internet banking (my guess is yes, but you might be Korean)
> 
> The Internet is not a toy, there are serious consequences that can
> arise from having many unsecured hosts connected.
> 

There are consequences from unsecured hosts, but they are much
less likely to be violent and/or destructive than an awful lot
of other risks we face in everyday life.

Just looked at the Canberra Times for today and one of the
stories is 'Cabbie assaulted, cash stolen.' I'm prepared to
bet that taxi driver considers being beaten up in real life
worse than having his bank account cleaned out over the Internet.

The computer security industry inflates the risks of Internet
crime, sometimes for financial reasons, sometimes for the very
human reason of wanting to feel that what they do matters. The
classic example by now is cyberterrorism: despite the beatups,
Al-Qaeda aren't sitting around plotting "tomorrow, brethren,
we will strike a deadly blow to the Western infidels by shutting
down their email!"

	cheers,
	Hugh