Message-ID: <20031021200458.77541.qmail@web14809.mail.yahoo.com>
From: montanatenor at yahoo.com (Montana Tenor)
Subject: No Subject (re: openssh exploit code?)

I agree with Mitch.  Lets say you get an advisory that
a severe thunderstorm may be coming your way.  Do you
wait until the wind and rain are blowing inside your
house to close the windows and doors.  Do you allow
the kids to keep playing outside?  You do the prudent
thing.  Instead of trying to brute-force Mitch into
this, think about why doing the right thing to protect
the long term interests of your business is the RIGHT
thing to do.

The problem is solved by a refusing to allow a
superior, most likely one ignorant to security
concerns, to make the ultimate decision about security
issues.  Come on, thats why he/she hired you in the
first place.  To come to the decision that there
is/may be a problem and to fix or mitigate it, unless
your an MCSE, than your job is simply being a patch
drone.  ( sorry couldnt refuse that jab :) ).

Doing the prudent thing is almost always the best
approach.  If you see a CERT advisory, I would say its
prudent to patch.  Even if the language is vague and
you see no proof.  

Do you have to be lifted up into the tornado before
seeking shelter? If, in the corporate world, your
downtime to patch means lost income, then perhaps you
need to allow for such loses in your business
model/plan.  Its part of doing business, and thats not
my opinion, its fact.  Either you put the money in(via
lost revenue in downtime) now, or you lose more money
later when you get sucked into the tornado.  I am
sorry, but when a customer calls me today because I
have taken his box offline to apply a patch, I explain
to the customer that doing so is the prudent thing to
do, and the atmosphere turns from a bitching customer
to one that respects the fact that I am so proactive
in securing their machine and thier interests.  Its a
trade off, pay me now..or pay me more later, its never
that you dont pay, unless its fraud, and its better to
apply a patch that may not be doing more than
printf'ing "hello world" than to not and be owned.  

People seem to forget that corporations need to think
in terms of what is best for their long term futures. 
If you find your losses are increasing beyond what
your company can absorb, perhaps you should look at
switching to a more stable environment.  Or realise
that doing business in the sector means incurring some
losses, and if your revenue cannot match the losses,
perhaps your business plan needs to be altered. 

Anyone that disagrees with me can do a simple test. 
Next time the CEO says it is not acceptable, ask the
CEO how important to you is our largest customer,
because they will be the first to leave us when things
go horribly wrong.  You see, big corporations know
that software has bugs, people make mistakes, it is
the manner that you deal with those issues and with
your customers that determines how well you will do in
this arena.  

Cheers,
Matt

PS: sorry for the long response

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