Don Lindsay writes that insecure network environments are “attractive nuisances” and should be dealt with appropriately by a new government agency.
We’re going to have to have some force that goes around discovering problems, and getting them fixed. And since the problems exist in computers owned by individuals and by corporations, and they’re not fixing them, that means that the force has got to be outside those individuals, and outside those corporations. It has to be the government. This is a real pity, because I don’t like the idea of suggesting a new government agency. But that’s what I’m doing.
What that agency should do, all day, every day, is run around doing the electronic equivalent of trying doorknobs. After all, that’s what hackers do, really. They have their computer try 10,000 doorknobs and eventually they find a door that’s unlocked. That’s how they break into computers. After all, in a million systems, a few thousand mistakes are inevitable.