full-disclosure - Is user education a lost cause?

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From: pauls at utdallas.edu (Schmehl, Paul L)
Subject: Is user education a lost cause?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: full-disclosure-admin@...ts.netsys.com 
> [mailto:full-disclosure-admin@...ts.netsys.com] On Behalf Of 
> Tobias Weisserth
> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 2:54 PM
> To: Mary Landesman
> Cc: full-disclosure@...ts.netsys.com
> Subject: Re: [Full-Disclosure] Anti-MS drivel
> 
> We all agree that the people behind these attacks are the bad 
> guys. But we can't change them, we can't eradicate them. We 
> have to live with them.

To a certain degree I agree with you, however my viewpoint isn't quite
as bleak.  I believe there are *some* things we can do to at least
reduce the number engaged in this type of activity.

> The one thing we can change though is 
> accepting or not accepting the way vendors ship software.
>
What about changing users?  You don't allow for any of that at all?  I
think it's not only possible but will happen over time.  Just as people
learned the rules of the road for driving (and some seem to never
learn), I believe many will learn the rules of the road for the
Internet.  It just takes time, just as driving rules took time.  (In
fact, we're still learning, aren't we?)

I think one of the "security community's" basic responsibilities is to
educate users and to never give up on educating users.  After all, one
of the most important parts of our job is writing policy, is it not?  If
that's true, and yet we don't believe users can be educated, then why is
policy writing so important?  Obviously it's because we believe that
policy can change *most* users.  Yes, there will always be some small
percentage that are either stupid or combative, but the vast majority
just need to understand the risks in order to know how to behave in a
secure manner.

Paul Schmehl (pauls@...allas.edu)
Adjunct Information Security Officer
The University of Texas at Dallas
AVIEN Founding Member
http://www.utdallas.edu/~pauls/