[69415] in North American Network Operators' Group
Packet anonymity is the problem?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Sat Apr 10 22:48:58 2004
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 22:48:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>
To: nanog@merit.edu
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
If you connect a dialup modem to the public switched telephone network, do
you rely on Caller ID for security? Or do you configure passwords on the
systems to prevent wardialers with blocked CLIDs from accessing your
system? Have a generation of firewalls and security practices distracted
us from the fundamental problem, insecure systems.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/security/33344.html
Gartner research vice president Richard Stiennon confirmed that packet
anonymity is a serious issue for Internet security.
[...]
"Because of the way TCP/IP works, it's an open network," Keromytis
said. "Other network technologies don't have that problem. They have
other issues, but only IP is subject to this difficulty with abuse."
[...]
Bellovin compared the situation to bank robberies. "[S]treets, highways
and getaway cars don't cause bank robberies, nor will redesigning them
solve the problem. The flaws are in the banks," he said. Similarly, most
security problems are due to buggy code, and changing the network will
not affect that.