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This humourous essay [PDF] on modern computer security, I thought would be an interesting read for SN; here's an excerpt.
Security research is the continual process of discovering that your spaceship is a deathtrap. However, as John F. Kennedy once said, "SCREW IT WE'RE GOING TO THE MOON." I cannot live my life in fear because someone named PhreakusMaximus at DefConHat 2014 showed that you can induce peanut allergies at a distance using an SMS message and a lock of your victim's hair. If that's how it is, I accept it and move on. Thinking about security is like thinking about where to ride your motorcycle: the safe places are no fun, and the fun places are not safe. I shall ride wherever my spirit takes me, and I shall find my Gigantic Martian Insect Party, and I will, uh, probably be rent asunder by huge cryptozoological mandibles, but I will die like Thomas Jefferson: free, defiant, and without a security label.
[Also Covered By]: Schneier on Security
Original Submission
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @05:23PM
No, shut up and install adblock and boycott Windows 10 because SCARY HACKERS
(Score: 2) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Sunday August 30 2015, @05:40PM
Doesn't matter if I'm paranoid because they're still out to get us. There's money in it, so what do you expect?
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Sunday August 30 2015, @07:06PM
Really? Hypothetically, how much would I get for killing you?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday August 30 2015, @09:19PM
In this liberal sentencing world, probably not more than 6 years, with time off for good behavior. Unless you are black.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Post-Nihilist on Sunday August 30 2015, @10:50PM
Since he used a computer to find you so, his 6 years become 18 and he cannot use the Internet until he has cataracts
Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday August 31 2015, @05:58AM
Depends. If he finds a way to invoke "stand your ground" (e.g. by pulling his gun and afterwards having a reasonable feeling that AnonymousCowardNoMore might also pull a gun and shoot him), he might walk free? Or if he waits for nightfall and claims he perceived him as a black person? (If ACNM is actually black, that would of course simplify matters enormously, while things would get difficult if davester666 turns out to be black...)
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Tuesday September 01 2015, @08:22AM
He clearly provoked me by claiming that I would get some amount of money for killing him.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @05:54PM
The one you should fear is Microsoft and the governments they do business with, not "scary hackers".
Of course you should install adblock and boycott proprietary software.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 30 2015, @06:16PM
" Thinking about security is like thinking about where
to ride your motorcycle: the safe places are no fun, and the fun
places are not safe. I shall ride wherever my spirit takes me, "
But, it doesn't hurt anyone or anything to take a motorcycle safety course or two, and it CERTAINLY doesn't hurt to read authors such as Keith Code, or David L. Hough. Understanding the physics that govern when, why, and how your motorcycle turns doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the ride. Knowing the reasons that your lane is divided into three portions isn't going to slow you down any - in fact, it can potentially keep you "up on two" longer than failing to understand.
Yeah, I'll ride wherever my spirit takes me, but I depend on experience, knowledge, and judgement to keep me alive while I'm getting there.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Sunday August 30 2015, @08:50PM
experience, knowledge, and judgement
Of those, only knowledge can be taught. The rest you just have to pick up as you go.
The whole business of survival is hoping insufficient quantities of those three qualities do not kill you before you obtain a sufficient quantity of at least one of them.
By and large, the world is far more benign than most suspect, and people somehow survive long enough to procreate.
By and large computers and the internet are far more vulnerable than we think. Its a good thing most of our computers contain so little of interest.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Sunday August 30 2015, @08:39PM
Okay, but only because you command me to.