Jim Choate wrote:
you're right. that's why I said "what's left of it".
But if it wasn't ever there how can there be any left of it?
there always was security. just never enough to make a difference in the total sum. but it's not like *every* machine on the net is wide open.
no. the argument is: if you make probing illegal, we'll see even more (and *much* more) "security through obscurity" - because figuring out that this crap is insecure will land you in jail.
Going to jail won't stop anyone from figuring it out if that's what they want. I would be so bold as to suggest that if they make it illegal then you'll see a significant rise in the behaviour, along with increased use of anonymous remailers and Open Source software than can be kludged.
there's a lot of people who couldn't care less. however, there are also a couple of people who do care. for example, I have occasional sysadmin-to-sysadmin contacts along the lines of "hey, by accident I found that on your site..." - that would definitely not work as well if by pointing out some config error to the guy running the site you risk that if he's an asshole you're in a lawsuit.