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Interview with Eugene Spafford
scubacuda writes "Dr. Eugene 'Spaf' Spafford, security expert and professor of Computer Science at Purdue University, talks with Greplaw about what drove him to the computer security field, what it's like to testify before the White House and Congressional committees on information security and public policy, and how legislating technology is 'bad law.' For you budding legal geeks interested in forensics, technology, law, and ethics, Spaf has provided a reading list."
Technology typically finds its own solutions to problems, which makes many laws incredible nuisances, stifling innovation.
I think he is good for the same reason. Hackers, in the cracker sense do deserve large amounts of jail time. If you steal a CD, your fined more than the $30 retail value. You contribute to the worms and viruses which ruin many new computer users internet experiences, take down websites, etc. you deserve big time and fines.
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Take it from me, he isn't like that, and yes I had him guest lecture in my Ethics in Computing (PHIL 590?) class so don't say I don't know what the hell I'm talking about; unfortunately he hasn't taught CS426 in a long time :(
My guess is this interview was done over email. Spaf refers to "see my answer above" at one point, which indicates to me the interview wasn't done in real time. There's also no follow ups, or referring to previous answers in any of the questions, all telltale signs of an email interview.
The journalist is still at fault of course. Roger Rustad should have done his homework and found out that Spaf doesn't research viruses. He wasted half his questions on this fairly boring topic. Anyway, it sounds like Spaf is mostly an administrator and doesn't do much of his own research.
AccountKiller
The problems that I see arising are when people like Spaf have a significant influence on the maturation of the computer crime field. This, from a practitioner's point of view, is frustrating as people such as Spaf have rarely left their offices and campuses, have little to no experience (in comparison), and often pontificate loudly.
I know how little they are actually doing up at CERIAS in regards to forensic analysis. They have 1 guy working on research, and another guy who releases tools that have an interface that sucks like a cheap whore. Again, they have not left their offices. (Smart dudes of course, but no exp.)
We don't want computer security types. We need AFS to set up certification.
Computer Security != Computer Forensics, for fooks sake.
Which is contradictory how? Make sense not you do.
He owns a Mac box for desktop use, Solaris for his server, a Windows tablet PC (there really is no functionally equiv. alternative tablet platform) and OpenBSD for his laptop (really the only odd one out, probably as his system for x86 coding).
Looks to me like he's chosen "the right tools for the right jobs," just like he says in the article.
Barto