[192508] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Spitballing IoT Security
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Hickstein)
Sun Oct 30 13:30:07 2016
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Jim Hickstein <jxh@jxh.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2016 12:30:03 -0500
In-Reply-To: <20161030113505.GA7295@gsp.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
On 10/30/16 06:35, Rich Kulawiec wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 12:07:17AM -0500, Jim Hickstein wrote:
>> A virus that kills its host (too much of the time) is not successful.
>
> True. On the other hand:
>
> "Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money.
> They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with.
> Some men just want to watch the world burn."
>
> I have no doubt whatsoever that some of our adversaries fall squarely
> into this category.
i.e. vandalism.
Agreed, and the respondent who brought up rational actors has pointed
out where the computer "virus" analogy breaks down: biological viruses
have no rational actor and no premeditated goal. Their success, as
usually defined (maximum incidence in a population), emerges from the
mathematics of their operation.
DDoS attacks are ultimately caused by humans (so far) and while we may
not know clearly their goals or the values that underlie them, they
exist. This would seem to call for a different response. I wish I knew
what.
