complacence

Cliff Stoll, the author of The Cukoo's Egg points out that the most common vulnerabilities are the ones that come by default on a machine. DEC's Vax computers came with three system accounts, all with a default password. The system never forced the administrator to change them. For the most part "Hunter," the hacker he chased for over a year, didn't use sophisticated tools or brute force. He tried the front door, which was usually wide open.

The modern day front door is a wireless router. Cracking wireless security has become almost trivial. There are utilities that do it automatically. But as easy as it is, it's even easier to find an unsecured network. If you want free internet, look for a network called "linksys," "default," "Wireless," "NETGEAR," "belkin54g," or "Apple Network 0273df." Those are the default network names for the most popular routers. The owner will most likely have left it wide open, with no encryption of password.

I'm sitting here trying to muster up an opinion about the trade off between rights and protection. To what extent can a governments infringe on the rights of its citizens to protect them from potential harm? I'm coming up short. Indifference like this is why our individual rights are slowly eroded from beneath our feet.

Apple caters to the majority market share with their iPod, and in return the consumers accept the DRM pushed on them. For the most part, nobody balks when told that they are allowed to use the song they purchased from the iTunes Music Store on one and only one computer, and on one and only one iPod [note: i know this is not the case any more. but it was for a long time... and the average user didn't even balk]. Nobody bats an eye when they are told that the DVD that they purchased was actually a license for only that medium, and that they will have to buy another copy if they wish to transfer it to their iPod.