Geer: Trends in cyber security

Posted Dec 3, 2013 19:39 UTC (Tue) by NightMonkey (subscriber, #23051)
In reply to: Geer: Trends in cyber security by Aliasundercover
Parent article: Geer: Trends in cyber security

Heh, I think you've been a victim of Maytag's old "lonely repairman" marketing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t88WJmZDMBY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb3fSXiz1XM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4j8RoesBrg

I think folks have been led to believe that we have created perfection somewhere. We have not. Entropy exists. Also, the environment that the machines are in matters. You perform more maintenance on a truck in the desert than you do on a truck in a garage in Kentucky. And is anyone actively trying to destroy your washing machine 24/7 365? I hope not! :)

A simple computer that plays tic-tac-toe and doesn't live in a TCP/IP network doesn't need updates. The fact is, computers as we use them are very complex, suprisingly brittle constructs, but lots and lots of marketing have convinced people that they are actually robust.

Geer: Trends in cyber security

Posted Dec 3, 2013 20:09 UTC (Tue) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link] (1 responses)

> A simple computer that plays tic-tac-toe and doesn't live in a TCP/IP network doesn't need updates. The fact is, computers as we use them are very complex, surprisingly brittle constructs, but lots and lots of marketing have convinced people that they are actually robust.

This is a great distillation of the truth of it. I wonder if we really haven't crossed a threshold, or several, where we are getting diminishing returns for all the added complexity. How many of the benefits of modern technology could be implemented using extremely simple electronics and software such that the complexity is manageable. Right now we have layers upon layers upon layers of independent computers and firmware all meshing together in a way that reminds me more of Verner Vinge "A Deepness in the Sky". Could you even identify all of the computers in a modern laptop?

Geer: Trends in cyber security

Posted Dec 3, 2013 20:50 UTC (Tue) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

Actually, I think quite often technology has a NEGATIVE return!

Managers have a habit of taking a broken process and computerising it in an attempt to make things better.

Sorry, computerising a broken process can't magically fix it. And often, once it's fixed, you don't need to computerise it!

Cheers,
Wol