[4533] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Hearing on Melissa and Privacy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bjorn Remseth)
Tue Apr 20 11:15:50 1999
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 11:40:20 +0200 (CEST)
From: Bjorn Remseth <rmz@dunk.follo.net>
To: To:cryptography@c2.net
Cc: "Lynne L. Harrison" <lharrison@dueprocess.com>
In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19990417174156.00870340@pop.mhv.net>; from Lynne L. Harri
On Sat, Apr 17, 1999 at 05:41:56PM -0400, Lynne L. Harrison wrote:
> "While I am a little bit concerned about the pernicious effect of viruses,
> I am more than a little bit disquieted about the way this investigation was
> pursued," Representative Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat, said during
> the two-hour hearing of the House Science Committee's technology
> subcommittee.
>
> "We are so wrapped up with idea of hunting down cyberterrorists that the
> walls are chipped out and our privacy rights are steadily eroded," he said.
Another issue that bugs me is the fact that viruses are an essentially
unnecessary. They are a consequence of basically flawed security
mechanisms in a few operating systems (Windows and MacOS, mainly), and
total disregard for security in a few important office programs using
macros (word, excel). Had these systems both used hardware memory
protection to create a barrier stopping writes to operating system
files (such as the boot sector), and restrict macros from doing
anything to any file, as the are allowed to today, then we wouldn't
have had the virus menace. Viruses would still have been possible, but
mainly a curiosity, as they now are on proplerly designed systems such
as VMS, MVS, Unix etc. (and probably on java based systems to).
Personally I believe the correct action against the virus menace is a
class action suit against Apple and Microsoft. If this is technically
(i.e. legally) possible is unfortunately another issue.
Shooting the virus writers will not solve the problem, fixing the
basic problems in the operating systems and office packages in
question would. Hence the virus writers should not be the target, at
least not in the long term. That is if ridding the world of viruses
really is the objective of the current persecution ;)
(Rmz)
