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Slightly alarmed by the implied air-quotes around "security". Does the author think there's no need for security? That it's not important? A large chunk of the

Slightly alarmed by the implied air-quotes around "security". Does the author think there's no need for security? That it's not important? A large chunk of the problems we have now are because no-one thought about security in the 80's and 90's when the various protocols we use were being invented. It was only kinda safe because not connected to the internet. As soon as the internet came along all those simple protocols got abused royally, and all those simple OS's got pwned routinely. I remember those days. Being the family IT support, once a month I had to clean my sister's laptop of all the viral crap she kept clicking on. Today is better. Much, much better.

tannhaeuser 6y ago
Except the protocol/format we use for communicating text in the public is terminally convoluted, requires executing arbitrary code, is laughably energy-inefficient and has only one or two apps left that can deal with it. When SGML on which HTML is based (also released in the 80s) was a "humanist" idea to prevent exactly that from happening.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
> Slightly alarmed by the implied air-quotes around "security". Does the author think there's no need for security? That it's not important? I can't speak for the author, but I think a lot of this industry sacrifices way way too much in the name of nebulous "security". Case in point: Spectre and Meltdown are not likely to ever be a significant threat to any desktop computer user, nor to any server that is only running trusted code, yet a lot of IT people lost their shit over it and were willing to significantly degrade their performance via heavy handed mitigations.
- api 6y ago
  It’s worse in networking where firewall admins block first and ask questions later, breaking VoIP, making video calls slow, and breaking anything P2P. The rationale is security but if you ask them what risk is being mitigated by blocking this or that they can’t answer. It’s superstition. The vast vast majority of targeted attacks today are by exploiting the least secure part of the system: the meat bag in front of it.
  - marcus_holmes 6y ago
    Agree totally. Security theater is a real thing. But if the whole shebang had been built with multi-user, online, and hostile as a default we wouldn't have spent 20 years dealing with the failure of protocols in the face of black hats, and the meat bags would be more secure in their ignorance.

tannhaeuser 6y ago

Except the protocol/format we use for communicating text in the public is terminally convoluted, requires executing arbitrary code, is laughably energy-inefficient and has only one or two apps left that can deal with it. When SGML on which HTML is based (also released in the 80s) was a "humanist" idea to prevent exactly that from happening.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

> Slightly alarmed by the implied air-quotes around "security". Does the author think there's no need for security? That it's not important? I can't speak for the author, but I think a lot of this industry sacrifices way way too much in the name of nebulous "security". Case in point: Spectre and Meltdown are not likely to ever be a significant threat to any desktop computer user, nor to any server that is only running trusted code, yet a lot of IT people lost their shit over it and were willing to significantly degrade their performance via heavy handed mitigations.

api 6y ago
It’s worse in networking where firewall admins block first and ask questions later, breaking VoIP, making video calls slow, and breaking anything P2P. The rationale is security but if you ask them what risk is being mitigated by blocking this or that they can’t answer. It’s superstition. The vast vast majority of targeted attacks today are by exploiting the least secure part of the system: the meat bag in front of it.
- marcus_holmes 6y ago
  Agree totally. Security theater is a real thing. But if the whole shebang had been built with multi-user, online, and hostile as a default we wouldn't have spent 20 years dealing with the failure of protocols in the face of black hats, and the meat bags would be more secure in their ignorance.