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Not to go too far off track here - but should I get a penalty for not locking my door at home?

AnthonyMouse 14y ago
OK, forget the fine then, we'll just go with the stern warning. The point is that they should both get the proverbial slap on the wrist -- the person who breaks in should be chastised but hasn't caused any real harm and the person who allowed it to happen should endeavor to be more careful and not redirect responsibility for something trivially harmful that they could have themselves prevented if they deemed it worthy of the required effort.
- ghshephard 14y ago
  So, what your are saying, is that I shouldn't be penalized if I don't lock my door at home, but I have no basis to complain if someone comes into my house, snoops around, looks in drawers, and then leaves without damaging anything. I'm actually ambivalent about this, but I'm always intrigued as to whether people's sense of "Protect yourself on the internet or you deserve what you get" translates to "Protect yourself at home, or you deserve to be burgled". Indeed - one could take it so far as, "Protect yourself with a weapon late at night/in your home, or you deserve to be beaten/mugged/etc..." - but, in general, we recognize the black and white line somewhere between "ssh server" and "put in hospital with contusions" - I think the "snooping around my house with unlocked door" is the gray area.
  - AnthonyMouse 14y ago
    I think there is also an argument that the internet is different, both because pretty good security is reasonably within reach for the typical server operator (unlike the cost of e.g. vault-quality doors and walls in a home), and because your government can't protect you from the wider internet because most of it is outside of its jurisdiction. In that situation having a bunch of mostly harmless curious kids banging around creating antibodies in the system is probably a net positive, so that you find out your security is broken when some kid (who isn't trying to avoid detection and steal your trade secrets) is the one who opens your eyes to the vulnerability instead of the eye opener being a Chinese company selling your secret formula for near-cost on the world market.
alan_cx 14y ago
Yes. If you get burgled and you insurance company discovers you didn't lock you home up, yeah, you will get a penalty.

OK, forget the fine then, we'll just go with the stern warning. The point is that they should both get the proverbial slap on the wrist -- the person who breaks in should be chastised but hasn't caused any real harm and the person who allowed it to happen should endeavor to be more careful and not redirect responsibility for something trivially harmful that they could have themselves prevented if they deemed it worthy of the required effort.

ghshephard 14y ago
So, what your are saying, is that I shouldn't be penalized if I don't lock my door at home, but I have no basis to complain if someone comes into my house, snoops around, looks in drawers, and then leaves without damaging anything. I'm actually ambivalent about this, but I'm always intrigued as to whether people's sense of "Protect yourself on the internet or you deserve what you get" translates to "Protect yourself at home, or you deserve to be burgled". Indeed - one could take it so far as, "Protect yourself with a weapon late at night/in your home, or you deserve to be beaten/mugged/etc..." - but, in general, we recognize the black and white line somewhere between "ssh server" and "put in hospital with contusions" - I think the "snooping around my house with unlocked door" is the gray area.
- AnthonyMouse 14y ago
  I think there is also an argument that the internet is different, both because pretty good security is reasonably within reach for the typical server operator (unlike the cost of e.g. vault-quality doors and walls in a home), and because your government can't protect you from the wider internet because most of it is outside of its jurisdiction. In that situation having a bunch of mostly harmless curious kids banging around creating antibodies in the system is probably a net positive, so that you find out your security is broken when some kid (who isn't trying to avoid detection and steal your trade secrets) is the one who opens your eyes to the vulnerability instead of the eye opener being a Chinese company selling your secret formula for near-cost on the world market.

alan_cx 14y ago

Yes. If you get burgled and you insurance company discovers you didn't lock you home up, yeah, you will get a penalty.