full-disclosure - RE: 40,000 deaths per year - Was: CyberInsecurity: The cost of Mo nopoly

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From: frobozz at frotz.us (j)
Subject: RE: 40,000 deaths per year - Was:
	CyberInsecurity: The cost of Mo nopoly

On Tue, 2003-09-30 at 13:29, Schmehl, Paul L wrote:

> The death by vehicle rate in America proves that we are doing a very
> *good* job of training people to drive, despite all the anecdotal
> evidence you can conjur up for stupid drivers.

Actually, I think it often comes down to fear.  Most drivers are aware 
of dangers involved in driving a car, and get started off (drivers ed, 
films, news, etc) with a healthy fear of those dangers.  They learn 
(hopefully) to handle the car fairly safely, and the fear is subsumed 
in the confidence.

Contrariwise, the vast majority of home computer owners have little clue 
about any dangers involved in using their computer.  In part this is 
because of the lack of the 'drivers ed' et al instilling healthy fear at
the start, but it also comes down to their inability to perceive any
direct threat to themselves.  Until they can be clearly shown a direct
threat to themselves or something of importance to them, or they are
convinced they will be accountable for misuse of their computers, I fear
this will continue.  Elementary school computer classes should have
mandatory computer safety sections - at least train the next generation.

For many, I think the first clue that their machine is compromised is 
that their p2p transfers seem slower than last week...

j

MCP.  Defenestrator.  Cynic.