Book: "Fatal System Error: The Hunt For The New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down The Internet"

[Robert Stratton]

Joseph Menn is an interesting guy. I met him at a conference reception last year where he was signing the book. The thing that probably struck me as most interesting/unusual from the perspective of an American his story about trying to do a raid on a computer intruder where the suspect was a relative of the local police chief. He told a story of the chief continually inviting them to go hunting with them, which sounded social enough, until they got a phone call explaining the connection between their liaison officer and the suspect in question. The unspoken assumption is that had they gone hunting they might not have returned from the excursion after a terrible "accident."

Mike, fear not. There is more than a little talk in the current security literature about how "mom and pop" PCs are arguably deserving of enemy status from the perspective of national security. 

--Bob S. 

On Jun 27, 2011, at 8:28 PM, Mike O'Dell wrote:

> People do not understand that the Internet has been invented in real-time,
> and sometimes not-quite fast enough.  Since there had never been anything like it
> in the world before it was built, nobody understood all the issues we now understand.
> 
> What is true, however, that it was clear from the beginning that "the network" was
> not designed to be "secure" because even if it were, only a fool would trust it.
> The computers attached to the network were supposed to be the security boundaries
> and to protect themselves, which many of them can do quite effectively.
> 
> It is also the case that a number of us anticipated some of the kinds of things that
> have happened (although not the scale - nobody anticipated the scale) as a result
> of attaching a trillion utterly promiscuous PCs to the network, all running software
> with the integrity of wet toilet paper. Hell, ANYONE in the computer biz with the slightest
> serious academic exposure knew what would happen. But that didn't stop a zillion copies 
> of Windoze 95 from grabbing their ankles and waving their butts in the air at any and everyone.
> 
> If anyone is responsible for the current security situation, it's Bill Gates and his horrid software spawn.
> 
> There, I said it. He made billions while utterly screwing everyone else on the Internet and it's still going on.
> 
> Nobody has the balls to put that in print, however, me included.
> 
>      - mo
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad so please excuse the jammy fingers.
> 
> On Jun 26, 2011, at 6:17 PM, Richard <revo753 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Hello All,
>> 
>> Just wanted to recommend an excellent book, which I have recently read, "Fatal System Error: The Hunt For The New Crime Lords Who Are Bringing Down The Internet" by Joseph Menn.
>> 
>> The book is fascinating and reads like an exciting novel.  The book is the story of a gifted computer geek, who is hired by corporations to secure their networks against denial of service attacks.  The computer geek, Barrett Lyons goes beyond the call of duty by trying to locate the criminals, who are behind the denial of service attacks.  He teams up with a British police agent to track down, and bring about the arrest criminals in Russia.
>> 
>> The book also shows the evolution of Internet crime, and how criminals have stayed ahead of corporations, government, and those, who are supposed to be protecting us.  While, the book is not very technical, (I wish it had more detail.) it does contain some technical explanations.  
>> 
>> As I understand it, Barrett Lyons and others believe the Internet was never meant to be secure, has been built out piece-meal, and thus is a perfect playground for criminals.  As I remember, he or another in the book compared the Internet to a system held together with duct tape.  
>> 
>> Here is Barrett Lyon's blog website: 
>> 
>> http://www.blyon.com/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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