> I don't know why this is such a frequent screw up in comparisons by people complaining about security. I have a suspicion that many, many engineers don't con

> I don't know why this is such a frequent screw up in comparisons by people complaining about security. I have a suspicion that many, many engineers don't conceive of networked systems as participants in a human-driven adversarial environment. Many conceive of their software systems as little artifacts that function mostly independent of the outside world. When complete and functional, they should require no touching at all to continue doing so. In other words, many people regard their computer systems as mechanistic and discrete things that can be declared "done" and treated as such. Many engineers work in shops where this is indeed how they work - ship a package and someone else does all the touching to keep it going. I'm sympathetic. It took me a long time to make the jump to understanding software as operating services that always require maintenance, monitoring, and other forms of operation. Modern computers on modern networks simply cannot be treated as toasters if we want that level of reliability. The paradigm shift isn't always easy or fun.