Re: Emergemcy Chunks Offline - tbzero utility

In article <jaegerwl.812172449@wckn.dorm.clarkson.edu> jaegerwl@wckn.dorm.clarkson.edu (Bill Jaeger) writes: ..... >I'm not suggesting that tbzero be released under all circumstances, but in >my case Informix was not able to call into the database due to policy at >my end. If you recall, the database in question had classified government data >in it. Boring or otherwise, outside organizations aren't permitted to access >this data - that includes Informix. It's under situations like this where Perhaps sites like this have an inadequate view of what constitutes "security". If you look at some of the early discussion in Garfinkel and Spafford (Practical Unix Security, Nutshell Books) they suggest something along the lines of security meaning that your computer does what it's supposed to (I left my copy in work so I can't quote exactly). Under this definition, with which I fully agree, there are more aspects to security than bad guys trying to steal your data. An attack could be a denial of service attack. It makes no difference to the end user if he has a denial of service by a worm as opposed to denial of service by the database being broken and you could regard denial of access to someone who could fix the database as a self-inflicted denial of service attack. If you write or influence your own security policy it's worth introducing such concepts into it. If you're lumbered with someone else's policy I suggest you pass the problem of getting the service restored onto them (but I bet they wriggle out of it). If you want a truly secure computer you can snip all the cables leading to it (including power), encase it in concrete and bury it in a hole in the ground - or save money by not buying one. If you want a computer that performs useful tasks you have to accept compromises somewhere. Ian