[AusNOG] (bad) cyber security and ideas coming out of thewoodwork?!

[Zane Jarvis]

Hi all,

Sorry to divert the discussion from the original intention of the email.
There have been some great comments from the people on AusNOG here.

> From: Mark Newton
>
> You think?  I reckon most botnet operators couldn't care less where
> their targets are physically located, and they'll just keep attacking
> windows boxes in other jurisdictions instead. :-)

Heh, good point! :-)

> From: Kai
>
> I use F/OSS where I can but it's not a fix-all, software is written by
> humans and, generally speaking, any machine is only as secure as the
> humans who administer it. Notice the theme here? maybe add humans to that
> filtered list! :P

Also a great point. I too use a mixture of open and closed source software. 

> I wanna know if all these news ideas go ahead exactly who's going to
> police it, how they're going to police it and where's the money coming
> from to make it happen? remote access comes to mind but that opens up a
> whole new box of security and privacy issues.

No idea but it will cost us all in taxes.  

>> ISPs should disconnect infected users
>> www.zdnet.com.au/isps-should-disconnect-infected-users-339304012.htm
>>

Disconnect?  I hope not, but a wall garden concept is a great idea.  I
understand it will make more work and cost more for the ISPs. But the infected
hosts do have a negative impact on your network don't they?

> Hopefully these crazy ideas never get any further than just being ideas,
> and hopefully whichever Government is in power realises how stupid and
> unworkable these ideas are and maybe does something useful like asking
> the right group of people a better way to manage cyber security and the
> common problem of user stupidity/ignorance -> computer infected with
> virus/worm/trojan, etc but, that'd make too much sense, and leaves us
> with freedom, easier to just TELL US what we want and how we'll use it.

Hopefully the government will improve their processes so as to make a more
informed decision when it comes to announce some of their policies. If they
don't they will have another major failure and lose face in the public like
has happened with all the recent policies that they have been trying to push
through.

Cheers,
Zane.