Re: Debian Server Compromise -- A Fire Drill ??

[Thanasis Kinias <tkinias@asu.edu>]

scripsit Monique Y. Herman:
 
> I find this to be unlikely.  I mean, look at the risk vs. reward.
> 
> Reward: they cause a very temporary disruption to some trusted sources
> and cause some folks to maybe worry about how secure linux might be.
> 
> Risk: getting caught funding black hats against the competition.
> 
> This just doesn't sound like good business to me.

I'm very much not a black-helicopter conspiracy type, but I think it
unlikely that, if someone who didn't want to be found out was behind
this, it could ever be pinned on them.  Look at the trouble FBI has
pinning things like contract killings on mafia bosses; the amount of
effort law enforcement is willing to spend on going after them is _much_
higher than what they'd be willing to spend on crackers going after
Linux.  If Foo Corp. wanted to do this, they really wouldn't have
anything to fear from the law -- and if they're confident that they have
more media pull, they wouldn't have anything to fear from the media
either.

That's not to say that MS/SCO/whoever had anything to do with this at
all, just that I wouldn't discount the possibility based solely on the
(to me, apparently small) risk they would be taking.

-- 
Pax vobiscum; pax cum omnibus.

Thanasis Kinias
tkinias at asu.edu
Doctoral Student, Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.