Slashdot Mirror
Schmidt Predicts Digital Sky Is Falling
Danse writes "Former Microsoft security chief Howard Schmidt now works for the government as the vice chairman of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. According to this article on Security Focus, he has been touring the country, proclaiming the dangers of "zero-day viruses" and "affinity worms" that will create the kind of havoc that nothing else short of a nuclear exchange could cause. "Traffic lights, pacemakers, appliances -- all subject to outages and interruptions because in the future they're controlled via Internet, declares Schmidt. The power grid could fail catastrophically by 2005!" How do you argue with this kind of rhetoric, especially when it's being spread directly by government officials to corporate leaders?"
Don't you remember that old television series Automan?
Between shows like that, in which a computer program given life could control any electrical device, and all the poorly done "hax0r" characters on film and television, why would you expect people NOT to believe things like this?
Perhaps they need to spread more FUD generated from 'reputable' sources like the government so people and corporations get scared enough to WANT government help.
The most conspiracy-engaging part of myself is saying that this is only the first step in a plan to 'prove' to us that 100% of USA civilian computer systems cannot be totally secure against attack from international adversaries and thus must not be in the hands of civilians.
Computers are incredibly powerful tools and today's machines are beyond what the scientists of 20 years ago dreamed of in the future's uber-super-computers. They can be used as powerful weapons in terms of using 'unbreakable' encryption, launching major DDOS and similar attacks, compromising systems and installing backdoors and more. They are tools for facilitating truly free speech and covertly exporting most any kind of information. Everyone with one could be seen as a threat to a government that wants ultimate control and thus this could be just the initial phase of a long-range multi-decade plan to keep all computers in the USA under physical control of the government.
Of course, this is just a far-fetched conspiracy theory. You are welcome to accuse me of throwing FUD because that's what this probably is.
> So now you guys in the US have someone in the government that is fighting windmills.
Remember, this guy is now part of an Administration that follows a policy of using the threat of foreign terrorism to terrorize the public into accepting legislation, policy changes, and major reorganization of government agencies. The key for reading this guy, just as for the rest of them, is to look beyond the FUD and see what his agenda is.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Why would these things be controlled via the internet? We already segregate certain high security systems from the internet to avoid even the chance of them being "hacked". I don't think a pacemaker would -EVER- be hooked up to the internet -- not only is there no point, but it's just extra risk for something to go wrong.
Because idiot sheeples want bigger faster better. They want their refrigerator to be able to print out a list of groceries it needs on their computer. They want to be able to put a recipe into their laptop, and using wireless, have it pre-program the stove and microwave, and have the refrigerator and pantry tell them what they need to buy to make it happen. Because clever marketing has convinced people that "can you hear me now? good" means you SHOULD be hauling a freakin digital phone with a billion free any time minutes a month around the grand canyon or your favorite cavern and annoying me.
Because people will BUY it if they think it is glitzy and new and makes them all hep and stuff. Maybe not many people, but people *will* buy. Look at cars! They now have more freakin features than anyone ever needed, but boy do they want them!
Figure out what people would have said about PDA's and cell phones thirty years ago had someone suggested they would exist. "Thats ridiculous..why would anyone EVER want that? I have my phone in the house, and I have my day-timer! Why carry around something that needs batteries?"
Granted.. Im as guilty as the next guy.. I gave my son a laptop to learn on when he turned six.. because I wanted him to have the edge as he grows up and be experienced and not afraid of computers.. but I think I may have done him a grave disservice, introducing electronics-as-necessity to him that young in life. (How many 9 year olds do you know who, on the phone with their friends, say "Hang on.. I'll shut down the laptop and be right over?"
Things will get hooked to the internet and to each other that never should be.. in the name of "convenience" and "cause its neat".
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
The truth helps. Just keep speaking the truth, and tell your friends, people on the bus, folks at work.
There are a couple of important points to consider.
* Systems related to national security shouldn't be on the internet in the first place. Sure, that's what its was designed for, to be a comm network that would survive a nuclear strike and still route packets. Of course, plenty of government networks are already physically disconnected. Not firewalled, just not connected. So no Slashdot reading on your power grid terminal. Until we actually start building secure software, cause we don't now, some systems absolutely have to stay disconnected, or connected only through separate, encrypted, physically secure networks.
* Instead of feeping creaturism, maybe its time to actually start worrying about security, ala OpenBSD. Could it be that people would put up with substandard office software and not-so-intuitive file browsers if we guarenteed them that the financial data on their computers would be safe? Would you pay extra for your internet-connected pacemaker (which will probably send data to your doctor) if you knew that somebody couldn't hack it and turn it off? Would your Mom put up with having to learn a confusing operating system if it meant that her Quicken data wouldn't get stolen? I bet mine would.
* And maybe, just maybe, we, as software engineers should stop living up to the low expectations of the marketdroids and the PHBs (oooh look, shiny GUI) and start demanding more of ourselves. The reason that propoganda like this punk is spewing travels so fast is that the computer-using public has been conditioned to expect so little (Oh, another reboot? No big deal. Server's down? Eh, kick it, I'll go get a cup of coffee.)
So, I'd tell people to stop whining, stop freaking out, and stop bowing to the government-media complex's instinct to make everything a damn crisis. Instead of worrying, do something. If you're a software dude, start thinking about robustness and security instead of pretty. If you're a (l)user, start learning how to secure your stuff, and start demanding that they companies you buy from do the same.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, its too dark to read.
When all your sheeps are going in every direction, what to you do to put them all tightly together? FEAR (dog, barking and looking menacing, drives the sheep back with the gang)
When all of the population starts to see all your little practices and schemes, criticize your every move, and notice you are not representing them but you're representing the whole mighty $ and corporatism, what could be more "welcomed" than a terrorist attack?
ALl the "sheeps" lose focus, are scared, and WANT help, seeing this, after, the gov uses this tactic to lever just about every single agenda he can. And then they preach how free they are, when their objective is to become the second China.
Of course I might be pessimistic and reading too much slashdot that mostly show the negative content when it comes to your rights online, but I've yet to see any form of government that is still 100% there for the VOTERS and not for the companies or mighty $. at some point the $ will fail, look at how much US is in debts, look at how much debts the average american has, look at how many bankruptcy/year, at some point, unfortunately, this system will all crash because it relies on continual expansion.
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
The biggest technical revolutions are not in things that people think they need, they are when one (or a few) smart people come up with things people need and build it. People didn't need a machine that talks until Edison invented one, and now everyone has some decendant of his record player. (Probably the only orginial invention of Edison!)
I agree that my kitchen doesn't need to print my grocery list. However my kitchen should keep track of what I have in it. When I see a sale on juice, it should inform me that I bought a lot of juice at the last sale, and half of it is still left. Then two isles over it should remind me that I'm low on flour as I pass by.
I have no problem making a list of things I need, but I often pass the store and want to combine trips (saves gas and time) as long as I'm nearby, even though I don't have a list.
How my kitchen can inform me of all this when I'm at the store is a different question. Wireless is getting someplace though, and will probably be avaiable long before my kitchen can sense what I have in it.
Even a google search couldn't help me.
Does the rest of the world know something that I should?
Pacemaker stopped? Don't worry! The hospital is automatically contacted and an ambulance is on the way. All thanks to the Internet and GPS. (Meanwhile, we get to keep track of where you are so that we can enhance the marketing power of our company and our "affiliates.")
Car stolen? Have no fear! We caught the thief on video and identified him before he even had a chance to start the car, which he won't be able to do anyway since his facial structure doesn't match yours. (Furthermore, if anyone other than you is to drive your car, you will have to register them as additional drivers, therby increasing registration fees and insurance costs. Oh yeah, did we mention the EULA you signed at the dealership? Each additional driver will cost you another $20k)
Wish you didn't have to make dinner everynight? Your prayers are answered! Our new, government patented refrigerovefreezewavestoventry will do it all for you! It stores and manages all your food, including monitoring expiration dates and printing out shopping lists. Choose predefined or custom recipes at the push of a button and your job is done! New recipes are downloded off the internet. Shopping lists can be submitted to a delivery service at the push of a button. (All recipes entered into the system become the property of the Acme Corporation. Your eating habits will be recorded for marketing and health insurance purposes.)
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
Bull. Hype and the labor of countless millions of IT folks turned into dumpster fillers did not solve y2k for us. It's more like y2k was a fraud. Funny how all my old equipment still works with no effort on my part at all. Systems not designed to be fail safe are flawed.
Never the less, it's a good thing you brought up y2k as it's the easiest way to fight the FUD:
Y2K and war are now perpetual. Right!
You will only suffer continuous computer failure if you use M$.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I'm sure the people who designed Therac 25 knew that as well, but they still screwed up and killed patients.
An example of "Yes you can get screwups." - which will be the Tacoma Narrows Bridge / Three Mile Island of medical automation for the next century (or until a bigger screwup happens). It's also an example of the belt, suspenders, and wasteband button all snapping at once.
But how many medical automation products are in use? And how many of them are killing people through software bugs? I think you'll find that, in general, medical automation is already designed, implemented, and tested to a MUCH higher standard than, say, your latest commercial desktop OS.
We only need to look for a few minutes at most any place using technology to see people embracing mediocrity with little care. With each passing year, I worry more and more about the medical community too. The things I see in hospitals is especially worrysome.
Let's not go generalizing between consumer marketplace software and that designed for automating medical equipment, or between
I know it's cliche, but this is what happens when your primary focus is money. That's why the love of money is called the root of all evil. As long as profit happens, the mediocrity will continue, because the people making the money don't care about anything but making the money.
No. The problems you allude to are not inherent in money. They are what happens when short-sighted administrators focus solely on near-term profit (and are psychopathic enough to ignore non-money risks of human injury). Map human consequences into monitary terms by such mechanisms as liability suits and even a psychopath can grasp that cutting corners and killing people is a bad bet. And it's the job of the upper-level management (starting with the board) to insure that the lower-level managment (starting with the president, CEO, COO) aren't simultaneously short-sighted and psychopathic enough to take bad chances and kill the company.
Short-sighted crooks we will always have with us, and sometimes they work their ways into positions of trust. But encoding consequences into money terms can bite them big-time. Arthur Anderson LLP's board didn't institute such policies. Arthur Anderson LLP is as good as DEAD. An administrator at Worldcom got into a debt bind and cooked the books to save his own butt. Worldcom is bankrupt and he was the first one kicked out the door. And so on.
There's nothing magic - evil OR good - about money. It's just a convenient means for quantifying human effort and values, aspirations and miseries. It is "crystalized labor". It is a way to split barter into two halves, so a plumber doesn't have to find a farmer with a stopped-up sink whenever he wants groceries.
When you concentrate enough value and power in one place to do great good, you concentrate enough to do great evil. It's the people who then handle it who decide whether it does good or evil. And its the institutions around it that create good consequences for those who do good and bad for those who do evil. If the institutions work well enough, even most evil people may chose to do good - and the ones who chose to do evil will get squashed as a result.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way