[techtalk] Layman's Guides to Computer Security

[James Sutherland]

On Thu, 17 May 2001 jenn at simegen.com wrote:

>
> > but seriously, regarding the titles of books ... i don't understand how
> > anyone can really care .. if it's an excellent book, should it matter that
> > it's titled "linux for the computer illiterate?"  or how about a terrible
> > book with a very sophisticated intelligent sounding title?  maybe i'm
> > missing the original point of the thread .. but that's how i feel :)
>
> The original point was that I was not -entirely- comfortable with
> the title of a group of articles I'm in the process of writing.
>
> I'd hoped for some feedback on the articles. I got rather more
> feedback on the /titles/ than I'd wanted - and not as much on
> the articles themselves as I'd hoped for. :)
>
> But people seem to enjoy suggesting titles. And there's been some
> good suggestions. Thank you.

The contents also looks good: you could point out in the security section
that the appropriate actions if a machine is compromised vary widely -
here, for example, the instructions are to keep the machine as-is - don't
shut down, don't reboot, just unplug from the Net if it's still being used
by the culprit (so they can't cover their tracks as easily), then call our
CERT and wait for the forensics ppl to visit...


James.
-- 
"Our attitude with TCP/IP is, `Hey, we'll do it, but don't make a big
system, because we can't fix it if it breaks -- nobody can.'"

"TCP/IP is OK if you've got a little informal club, and it doesn't make
any difference if it takes a while to fix it."
		-- Ken Olson, in Digital News, 1988