Schneier: ISPs should bear security burden

Wed Apr 27 19:56:00 UTC 2005

> 	We know that almost all users are too stupid to know what they really
> need or how to get it, and that they need to be protected from their own
> stupidity -- as well as protecting the rest of the world from their
> stupidity.

Not only do I not know this, I find it to be patently false.  Yes, I think
a high percentage of users is too ignorant to know what they need or how
to get it.  However, protecting them from that ignorance only propogates
and perpetuates it.  Pain is one of natures most effective educators.
Allowing people to experience the full (as long as it's non-fatal) effect
of their ignorance often creates a strong desire for education.

This incredible expansion of "We must protect people from themselves"
philosophy is wasteful, expensive, and, worst of all, highly destructive
to society in the long run.

Government or any other regulatory body should protect people from each
other, not from themselves.  Similarly, while knowingly producing a
dangerous
product should carry some civil and criminal liabilty, the fact that we
have effectively made companies and professionals liable for any act of
stupidity comitted by their consumers unless they specifically disclaimed
or warned (and sometimes even if they did) the consumer is about 2/3rds
of the cost of medicine today.  It's about 1/2 of the cost of an airline
ticket.  It's about 3/4 of the cost of aircraft parts.  The list goes on.

Owen

-- 
If it wasn't crypto-signed, it probably didn't come from me.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 186 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/attachments/20050427/c0ce4f6c/attachment.sig>