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Botnet Attack Shuts Down Hospital Network
aricusmaximus writes "A California student is now facing felony conspiracy charges after
unleashing a botnet attack that shut down the network of a Seattle hospital intensive care unit. This indictment comes a few weeks after another California man pled guilty to similar charges. Both attacks were attempts to make money off of adware affiliate programs. So who's really at fault here? The students? The hospital for not securing their computers and network? Or the adware companies for providing the incentive?"
Your analogy isn't an apt one. The hospital is clearly the ones at fault here as well, mainly for not taking the very basic precautions that would have protected them.
It would be more akin to a white person walking naked into 1970s Harlem, shouting racial epithets, and then getting shot. Sure, the person may not be responsible directly for doing the shooting itself, but they did put themselves into a dangerous situation that was easily avoidable. Thus they are at the very least partially responsible for what happened.
No system, be it at a hospital or a business, should every be shut down in such a fashion. Basic security precautions will go a very long way towards preventing such incidents.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
> Colt manufactures guns. Man opens fire in public with a Colt pistol. Who's at fault? The shooter, of course.
But if Colt or gun shops connive in selling guns to someone who is obviously intent on committing a crime then share some of the culpability.
Actually, gun analogies are great 'cause they cut right to the heart of things. The original post chose the wrong analogy, 'tho. Try this one:
If somebody puts a big box of loaded guns in the middle of a playground, it's not the kids' fault that they start killing everybody in sight. It's the guy who put the unsecured box of guns there in the first place.
Clearly, it is firstly and only the hospital's fault. Additionally, if you pause to think about the consequences of endorsing each of the three options on the table, you'll find that "it's the hospital's fault" is the only choice that will actually in practice keep patients alive.
And please, it's not that hard to build reliable systems that work. You just have to care at all.
My, my, from nitpicking semantics to ad hominem attack. Makes one think your argument is weak at best.