Re: 1e6 advantage to the terrorists

From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Wed Sep 26 2001 - 23:36:44 MDT


Spike Jones wrote:
> Reason I am asking: I thought of a most dreadful thing the
> terrorists could do with very little money and make an enormous
> psychological and financial impact on our society. They could
> easily destroy a billion dollars of value for each thousand
> they spent, and might not even need to die. If I post
> the idea, do I run the risk of giving the terrorists a notion
> that they hadn't already discovered? Or would I help
> protect against such a fate by alerting the good guys?
> Would the feds come visit me? spike

Perhaps. But:

a. The odds against it are astronomical. Do you avoid flying because
   there's a chance the airplane might not make it to its destination?

b. As has been amply demonstrated, security through obscurity is no
   security. Publically discussing security holes helps makes sure
   there are no - or at least few - security holes, which helps the
   good guys far more than the bad guys, especially in the long run
   since looking at holes that have already been patched does not help
   that much in finding current holes.



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