Single Point of Weakness is in the Works.Thank you Major Tom.

[Anonymous]

On Sunday, April 13, 2003, at 05:23  PM, Thomas Shaddack wrote:                                                                                         

> > Strike.  Learn to use STANDARD TIME FORMATS, you pathetic ex-con
> > sellout journalist.  DD/MM/YYYY is an antiquated european format.
> 
> ...and MM/DD/YYYY is an antiquitated American format.
> 
> STANDARD time format is ISO-8601 compliant, YYYY-MM-DD.

YYYYMMDD is also an option if (in the judgment of the writer) space
is scarce.  Everyone reading this thread should know that already.

> Another acceptable way is DD MMM YYYY in any order, where the format of
> the fields automatically and unambiguously determines meaning.

Acceptable?  Maybe to a few Europeans.  That's a waste - requires
computing the order of fields, and adds a character in its written
representation.

> Peddlers of other formats should be slowly tortured on public TV as the
> warning for the others. I'd be delighted to watch.

Me too.

> > Assuming Mr. Poulsen is fixating on the aspects of the draft he's
> > most familiar with, it becomes readily apparent that he is still
> > living in 1995.
> 
> You won't believe how many people who should know what IT security is
> about still live somewhere between 1900 and 1950.

I believe almost anything nowadays.

> > > But Norton also describes the power grid's fractal network of
> > > interdependent systems. "There's incredibly variety of equipment,
> > > generationally, vendor-wise, because it's kind of been cobbled together as
> > > neighborhoods get bigger," he says.
> 
> And because the vendors aren't required to disclose the documentation nor
> at least the interfaces, half[1] of the technology is a proprietary piece
> of shit that nobody knows how it works, and - worse - nobody can expect
> how it will fail.

As shitty as those systems are, you have to wonder whether it's cost
effective to use federal, state, or industry money to fix them when
an M82A1 and some jerk in a Hummer could cause just as much trouble.

> > > "You've got increasingly sophisticated control centers and
> > > increasingly sophisticated microprocessor-controlled equipment, and
> > > linking them are unencrypted 1200-baud lines."
> 
> True. And the cables are accessible to everyone who knows how to crawl
> into a manhole. Not even talking about the atrocious security of wireless
> links.
> 
> > Someone teach this child about fractals.
> 
> Why fractals?

Simply because Sir Poulsen used that term to describe a
cobbled-together network. (two Poulsen |Ps up)

> One comment I would have is that the growing intelligence of equipment

Insert dissent based on microsoft jab here.