Katrina Network Damage Report

Mon Sep 12 00:47:14 UTC 2005

On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 19:01:21 +0200, Iljitsch van Beijnum said:
> In other words: 0wning random appliances isn't all that interesting.

Amazingly enough, the *single* biggest problem in trying to get Joe
Sixpack to secure their systems is "But I don't have anything they'd be
interested in..."

> In fact, I would much rather allow access to pretty much anything  
> else rather than a powerful general-purpose computer.

On the other hand, if it's got enough smarts to do an IPv6 stack and have
enough left over to have something interesting to say, it's probably
"powerful enough" for miscreants to think of creative and interesting
uses for it, even if it *is* just a toaster....

Some small fraction of the population will network their toasters and
microwave ovens just Because They Can - but that's (a) just intellectual
masturbation and (b) those people have already *done* that.  Everybody else
won't do it unless they discover the toasters and microwaves can carry on
a productive conversation.  And for the miscreant, a device that can't do
much more than "I hear and obey" is often actually *more* useful than a device
that's likely to say "You want me to do *what*??"

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