Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: [Clips] A small editorial about recent events.(fwd)


From: Simon Richter <Simon.Richter () hogyros de>
Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:44:44 +0100

Hello,

Jamie C. Pole wrote:

Given the history of terrorist activity in Germany, I'm really surprised that you feel the way you do - your government is benefitting from the intelligence that is being gathered as well. Thankfully, Ms. Merkel seems to understand that.

Which is why I'm glad her party is not in charge of anything that affects security.

It's (just to get back to the list topic) like in information technology: security is understood as job security.

If you are in charge of security for a group of servers, and your clients are questioning whether they really need your services as there has not been a single successful attack in the last five years, wouldn't you feel tempted to let a small-scale thing pass by your checks so everyone gets reminded that your job is very important? And, if no small thing comes up when your contract is due for renewal, wouldn't you think about pissing off some script kiddies in the middle east to get the ball rolling?

A gov^Wcompany that cared about security would point to their track record, perhaps present some numbers about number of attacks deflected in the last year and ask anyone who questions the need for their work whether they would, if they would have to pay any losses for security breaches out of their pockets[1], behave any different. I am certain noone in their right mind would answer yes.

The conservatives are part of the German executive because they blocked the legislative branch as soon as they were in the majority there, effectively disabling the government. They got reprimanded severely in the last election, with their worst result for many years; their relative majority by a few votes is largely a result of many social democrats voting leftist (new party) this time and their threat that any new executive would be blocked just as the old if they were not part of it.

I believe their behaviour is rather childish and am glad that the anti-war "coalition" still has a strong majority (or in fact even stronger since the last elections), so Germany will not join any war. Right now, the biggest threat would be the US staging a terror attack in Germany in order to gain support, which is why the US is seen as the #1 enemy by many over here.

   Simon

[1] Which is the main problem in both cases: Responsibility is not linked to benefit.

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html
Hosted and sponsored by Secunia - http://secunia.com/

Current thread: