Infastructure Protection and Paranoia

[John Kelsey]

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[ To: cypherpunks ## Date: 10/30/97 ##
  Subject: Re: Infastructure Protection and Paranoia ]

>Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 23:35:41 -0800
>From: Bill Stewart <stewarts at ix.netcom.com>
>Subject: Re: Infastructure Protection and Paranoia

>At this year's CFP one evening we were playing the game of
>"You want to cause maximum disruption to the US
>infrastructure, and you've got 100 small explosive devices.
>Where do you put them?" Much creativity was displayed and
>substantial amounts of testosterone reveled in, and the
>overall conclusion was that we'd be in deep trouble if
>anybody even vaguely competent wanted to monkeywrench the
>system.

I agree.  This has always been my reaction to the infowar
folks--anyone who understands how to attack a system can
look around and find hundreds of fairly easy targets.  Some
of these targets just *can't* be protected in a
cost-effective way.  (Note the way the IRA and various
Palestinian terrorists still manage to find soft targets,
despite the fact that their intended victims have spent
years and millions of dollars hardening the obvious soft
points.)

>After that, we played the Russell-Brand-like game of
>"Destruction is easy.  What would you do if you wanted to
>create the most joy in the world instead."  That was harder
>:-)

Of course.  Any moron with a hammer can ruin a car engine;
it takes a skilled mechanic to fix one.  The same applies
almost everywhere--destroying something takes a fraction of
the skill of building or maintaining it.

>				Thanks!
>					Bill
>Bill Stewart, stewarts at ix.netcom.com
>Regular Key PGP Fingerprint
>                D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

   --John Kelsey, Counterpane Systems, kelsey at counterpane.com
 PGP 2.6 fingerprint = 4FE2 F421 100F BB0A 03D1 FE06 A435 7E36

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   --John Kelsey, Counterpane Systems, kelsey at counterpane.com
 PGP 2.6 fingerprint = 4FE2 F421 100F BB0A 03D1 FE06 A435 7E36