ISPs' willingness to take action

Mon Oct 27 17:32:14 UTC 2003

John Ferriby wrote:
>>I'm really surprised to hear the assertion that people are
>>leaving unfirewalled Exchange servers out on the net.
>>Is this actually common?    /shudders...
> 
> I don't think that the small shops know any better.  It's
> a matter of education, and in most of the cases I've seen
> the education has been painful.

    In most cases it isn't the even the "shops",
it is the "suits" who cut the check, -insisting-.

"In XYZ megacorporation we ran Xchange... harrumph"

  So, if you know how to use a Hammer,
     every problem is just another nail.

  Including the nail with the "neat spirals" down the
side.....

> VPN technologies are either too weak, like PPTP, too
> expensive or difficult to grasp like IPsec, or too new
> like the HTTPS tunnels.

  Breaking out an old saying, and reapplying:

   Something Old [IPChains],
   Something New [HTTPS],
   Something Borrowed [AIX/Linux],
   Something Blue [RS-6000].

YMMV, adjust to "suit" conditions,
  or is that "suit conditions" ?

  :P

  "You can't Hack that to which you cannot Connect."

> I don't recall the source, but it was recently reported
> that 40% of the exchange server base is still on the v5.5
> platform.   Using that as a general indication, many of
> these shops probably won't plan to upgrade anytime soon.

   A study of suits in the industry shows better than 77%
will suggest Xchange when asked for a safe reliable email
application server. Another study will show almost -none-
(< 5%) of them will have actual "hands on" experience
-administrating- said server....

  or -any- experience other than that of an end user.

   Interestingly the majority of suits will try to drive the "neat nail with the
spirals" into the wood, with the hammer, for some reason.

   Strangely, about 43% will -claim- success at the attempt, irrespective,
fudging the paperwork for appearances.

  Go figure!

   :\

> -John

FYI:

   Statistics show that the same personality characteristics
that make for an excellent liar, also makes for a good leader.

  So much so, it can be said, "Most Good Leaders are Excellent Liars".

(FWIW, Statistics -also- show that almost 70% of them had to -cheat- to
   get their college degree...)

Well, that certainly go -miles- in explaining politics, eh ?,
  Pardon, I digress...  :)

   And finally, a study demonstrated, "The more knowledgeable of the field
(computers) you are, the more likely you are to be humble when
proffering your opinion."

  Conversely, it was also been demonstrated, The -=less=- knowledgeable you are
in the industry, the more likely you are to accept your own opinion as
the "end all", or "authoritative" on the subject.

  :*

.TIA.

PPS: Sadly, Only -some- of the above statistics are made up.

    :O  :*  :P