To me, this story has analogues to the analysis of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. The engineering report indicated the O-rings were a risk, but the repo

To me, this story has analogues to the analysis of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. The engineering report indicated the O-rings were a risk, but the report was not clear enough or strongly-worded enough to effect change. The mission went forward unmodified with fatal results. This story is a strong argument for physical access controls. The computer could have been placed inside even something as low-tech as a locked cabinet, with only the people who knew what they were doing granted access. While the DEC Engineer should not have made assumptions, the assumptions he made were assumptions any reasonable individual might have made.