[53747] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Cyberattack FUD
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Schwartz)
Fri Nov 22 19:52:49 2002
From: David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>
To: <avg@exigengroup.com>
Cc: <nanog@nanog.org>
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2002 16:52:14 -0800
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0211221539170.31523-100000@arch.exigengroup.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
On Fri, 22 Nov 2002 16:31:30 -0800 (PST), Vadim Antonov wrote:
>In the "regular" skyjacking the attackers want to get ransom, or=
divert an
>airplane to someplace. They'll get cooperation from pilots, too=
- without
>any need to be present in the cockpit. So if it is known that=
the policy
>is not to let anyone in, no matter what happens to passengers,=
the
>attackers wouldn't even try. In fact, they don't, on airlines=
which have
>this policy. Letting deranged people in cockpit, in fact,=
places _all_
>passengers at risk of an unintended crash (imagine an attacker=
getting
>agitated and killing pilots, or simply pulling knobs - there=
were
>incidents when _little kids_ allowed to cockpit crashed the=
commercial
>planes).
>
>The rules of engagement were patently absurd
=09Let me see if I understand you correctly. You have a mentally=
disturbed man
with two guns and a belt full of bullets on a plane. He wants to=
speak to the
pilot face-to-face. He says if the pilots don't come out, he's=
going to shoot
the 236 passengers one-by-one. If you were the pilot, before=
9/11, how many
passengers would you let him shoot before you came out? And what=
consequences
would you expect to face when/if you landed safely?
=09I'm sorry, your reasoning might apply to some fantasy world but=
it would not
have seemed sensible to any rational person in the United States=
prior to
those terrorist attacks.=09They succeeded because nobody was=
expecting them. As
soon as anyone expected them, they failed. This is why Todd=
Beamer's plane
didn't reach its target.
[snip]
=09As for your arguments about the benefits of government=
intervention in the
computer market and other types of social engineering, I just=
hope people
like you stay out of power. At least Microsoft only uses their=
own resources
to push their vision of the future. You are welcome to use yours=
to push
yours.
=09DS
