Slashdot Mirror
Cybersecurity and Piracy on the High Seas
Schneier points out an interesting article comparing modern cybersecurity to piracy on the high seas in the early 1800s. The article extends the comparison into projected action based on historical context. "Similarly, in many ways, current U.S. policy on the security of electronic commerce is similar to Adams' appeasement approach to the Barbary pirates. The U.S. government's inability to dictate a consistent cyber commerce protection policy is creating a financial burden on the U.S. private sector to maintain a status quo, when those resources could be used to mount a more-effective Internet-focused defense. In the case of financial fraud on the Internet, the costs associated with fraudulent transactions are currently borne by private companies, which then have to pass those costs on to their customers. This basically creates a system in which the financial institutions are paying a type of 'tribute' to the cyber criminals, just as Adams did to the Barbary pirates."
Interesting. Government is less effective than private companies. Who would have guessed?
Looks like modern pirates would have a lot of words to relearn...
Hijacking - 1. Taking over a post on Slashdot.
Terrorism - 1. DOS attack against all the root DNS servers simultaneously. 2. Slashdotting a website.
"Arrrr..." - 1. Phrase uttered by someone who has just been linked to goatse.cz
One-Eye - 1. Asshole.
Pirate Flag - 1. Used to indicate a box has been pwned. 2. Used by Maddox (maddox.xmission.com) as a TM.
Booty - 1. A woman's butt.
...now we have bad boat analogies. Great.
Looks like the argument is "the government should be more involved in actually doing something." This is undoubtedly true; it's the government's job to set safety standards and to fight crime.
But really this is just an article that says "Hey, why not have the government fight crime?" with nautical window dressing. The author's better off scuttling the piracy angle.
Freedom isn't free; its price is the well-being of others.
Don't let W. hear this. Next thing you know we'll be sending the Internet Marines to invade Romania.
And as the old saying says...
Say no to Piracy! Don't steal ships.
how long until
At my school we got halfway through the American Revolution, then went straight to the summer break. When we came back in the fall we were studying WWII, leaving me to infer that the colonies had won independence.
I didn't even know there was an American civil war until I visited the south, where I found out it's still being fought.