On Sun, Nov 23, 2003 at 01:09:27AM -0500, Jim Hubbard scribbled: > After the Linux kernel server got hacked a few weeks ago, and now this > successful attack at Debian, my confidence is shaken. I hope we'll see full > disclosure about exactly what happened and what's being done to prevent it. Shaken? Without even knowing what caused the breach? What if it was Apache? Or php? (or anything else)? From your words I assume (perhaps wrongly) that you a) blindly believe in Linux-based OS security and, b) don't take into account the human factor of computing. As for a) above - all and every software has bugs, no OS is 100% secure, some bugs might be exploited some not - don't let yourself be misguided by the open source "preachers" who sing gospels about OS software being unbreakable etc - it's not true, it's dangerous, it's false. It applies to _all_ software out there. As for b) - from my experience I know that 90% of security breaches result from a human error. It is usually an administrator who forgot (or didn't know how) to check or secure one (or more) piece of software. And, please note, it does NOT mean the person responsible for the service is not qualified to do the job - not at all, s/he is just a human, and humans make errors. The hard thing after that is to admit to making the mistake or committing an error and, even harder, to fix it. And that's what is happening now - several people have been working hard on restoring the service and determining the facts to know how did it happen and, let me state that, I'm sure the same mistake won't ever happen again (the mistake might lie somewhere beyond the debian circle, we don't know that yet).So, give the people some time and after the details are disclosed - learn from their experience and use it in your work.
best regards, marek
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