September 15, 2003
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A Note from the Garden Journal Volume 1.4
It’s been quite a weekend indeed. I have spent a great deal running port scans on one or two hardware firewalls I am in charge of, trying to pinpoint more precisely why one of them seems to be on the blink in certain ways. The internet seems to be becoming fast a battlefield. It is easy to be apathetic to it until you connect your laptop via dialup and your software firewall goes apoplectically spastic. That’s only the dialup situation. Connect that machine directly to a DSL, Cable modem or other broadband source and you will really see where the fun stuff is trolling. While it is reasonable to point out that the average user should not have to be an engineer to respond correctly to what his firewall prompts him to do from time to time (assuming he has a firewall at all) in response to various attacks, it should also be pointed out that the user should take the responsibility to learn some of the most fundamental steps he should take and events he should anticipate. Not that the firewall and other software vendors make it incredibly easy for this to occur, granted. But, if you can learn how to drive a car, you can learn some of the most important things about internet security. And the security situation out there in the wild world of the internet will, until some things are changed, only continue to get worse.
Why do you learn to drive a car? So you won’t wreck it. The same thing applies here. If you don’t learn to protect your computer and your personal data, some 13 year old hacker could wreck your life or use your system to do that to the lives of others. Part of the very reason the internet has become such a seething cesspool is because of the fact so many home-users are having their machines hijacked unbeknownst to be used for all manner of nefarious purposes.
Of course Microsoft has been little help in this saga. This is the company that recently launched its latest publicity stunt dubbed a “security initiative”. It is also the same company whose internet portal, MSN.com requires most users to disable their firewalls (or severely limit them) to partake in the services offered there. But even if you don’t visit Microsoft’s portal, their crack staff of security-conscious “experts” have enabled by default services on your Windows machine that make it VERY promiscuous for no redeeming reason. In fact, it is one of these services which is now front and center in the latest security hole revelation and subsequent set of patches. I won’t go into any detail, but you can read more about these at www.grc.com and www.pcmag.com . But I have to wonder about the code writers at Microsoft. It wouldn’t surprise me one day if we find out that some of them were mal-intents. I am not a programmer and even “stupid me” can see the danger (and lack of good use) of some of these system services. In fact, most computer geeks have been aware of matters of network security long before the general public needed to be. So, I don’t think ignorance can really be used as an excuse at
At any rate, all of this “geeking” about this weekend has made me feel as if I’m a bit of a homebody. At least, that is compared to some friends who are doing a whirlwind tour of the States for a non-political Israeli medical charity. They are presently trying to get a former top official to come for a large fundraiser through some close channels. The money is to help the families and victims of terrorism in that region, which again started me thinking about the blessings secured for us here as Americans. We have such a luxury to, for the most part, be able take the war into the backyards of our enemies and out of our own. Over there, they only have one yard. Well, at least as long as we ignore the pink elephants of
Regardless of upon which side of the Israeli-Palestinian war you may be, I am sure if you are an American, you are grateful we don’t have to live under that level of strife here. It is like
But truly we need to exercise more common sense. Both with internet security as well as physical security. If a layperson can see the holes, it is I think, time to ask why our “watchmen” can’t or maybe won't. It’s time to start calling spades, “spades”.
-Blogbat a.k.a. Martin
A Note from the Garden Journal
Comments (2)
As I've always maintained, logic is such a simple, and yet insanely difficult, concept for most people to grasp.
And yep, I agree. We're really one of the few beings that kill our own, and we're the only beings that kill our own for the Hell of it. Other species kill in defense, for food or for territory. Humans like to maim just because.
Sad.
So sad. And it kills my spirit that such men exist. I know someone who is in a distant country providing a shelter for young girls he and his wife rescue from the sex-slave trade there. These girls start out at 11, when they are kidnapped and then repeatedly raped until they no longer cry or care. That kills me, I cannot fathom the cruelty in the hearts of some, though I would like for that cruelty to be inflicted on those that would hurt the innocent such as these poor girls.
These murderous and brutel people I pray one day are stopped, but such now is the way it is at the opposite end of selfishness and greed. If more men honored the Golden Rule, what a place this world would be. I pray for justice and mercy in the hearts of men for the innocent.
-Martin
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