From: Adrian Tymes (wingcat@pacbell.net)
Date: Wed May 21 2003 - 17:17:43 MDT
--- "Michael M. Butler" <mmb@spies.com> wrote:
> This raises the question: how does one get started
> in network/computer
> security work?
As with most things, you study the basics then do some
unpaid work to find out what they don't tell you. One
possible exercise: try to break into your own
computer remotely. Then see how you might find out,
using evidence you can gain via the network, how it
was done if you didn't already know. Play the roles
of sysadmin and syscracker, remembering that they
(usually) won't know each other personally.
Fortunately, the dark side does document itself in
this area, at least to a better degree than most
security areas.
> And the
> confluence of the two (security
> and SW test) seems to me to be a growth industry as
> "matter becomes
> software", to whatever degree and at whatever rate
> it does...
Only if it becomes routine to include vulnerabilities
in matter. This is IMO, but: the full potential of
"cyberwar" is vastly overblown - if people could
really and easily do the kinds of things they're
credited with, it'd be about like someone waving a
wand, melting an exterior wall of a bank vault, and
helping themselves to the contents without tripping
any alarms, which means a lot of people would be
doing exploits that damaging (note: *quantity*, not
just quality; I'm ignoring exploits that don't even
net $100K in under an hour's work) and you'd see it on
the news (can't hide that kind of routine damage for
long). Then again, if programmable matter was, for
sake of "convenience", routinely open to remote
commands from just any source (possibly with easily
forged identification), that might just cause this
kind of problem...but it'd probably be about as
popular with consumers as DRM, for similar reason
(despite what it allows in theory, consumers make
their decisions on what it is in practice, and if what
it is in practice is unreliable...).
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