Re: failed ssh breakins on my exposed www box ..

[Petro <petro@auctionwatch.com>]

On Sun, Mar 24, 2002 at 12:28:17PM -0500, timothy bauscher wrote:
> > We seriouslly need a US branch of the law-enforcement to deal
> > with this sort of stuff.
> I respect your opinion, but i would hate to
> have a new branch of government wasting my
> tax dollars. If these types of "attacks" can
> be stopped on the software side, than that
> be much more effective than government intervention.

    How far are you willing to take that attitude? 

> If they cannot be stopped, than we simply report
> the abuse to an already existing branch of
> government. That probably won't help capture the
> criminal, but neither would a *new* branch of
> government.

    100% agreement. 

> > I think if more people got prosecuted for
> > trying to crack into a site, the level of BS would drop to zero.
> 
> That reminds me of a threat from the DOJ to
> prosecute a cracker as a criminal with a
> possibility of life in prison. When i heard that
> statement, it sent chills down my back.

    It depends on the systems they hack. If you've got someone trying to
    hack e.g. an Air Traffic Control system, and they know it, then they
    do belong behind bars for life. They deserve it--they have, by their
    deliberate actions, shown either (a) a callous disregard for the
    lives and saftey of others or (b) an utter inability to see
    potential problems of their actions. Either way, they should be put
    some place where they cannot harm innocent people. 

> I think this way of reasoning is flawed. The government
> uses capital punishment as a deterrent for committing
> murder, but that has hardly stopped murders.

    There's your mistake. 

    Capital punishment is not meant as a deterrent, we know that doesn't
    work. It's a punishment for a heinous crime, and a 100% assurance
    that the individual so punished never does it again (modulo
    reincarnation). 

    I'm not going to take one side or the other on Capital Punishment
    other than to say: 

    (1) There is almost nothing a hacker can do with a computer to
    deserve capital punishment that isn't covered under other laws, 
    
    and
    (2) Recedivism amounst those recieving the death penalty is about
    0%. 

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