Re: port scanning withing the US: legal?

From: Barry Margolin (barmar@genuity.net)
Date: 10/25/02 

From: Barry Margolin <barmar@genuity.net>
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 18:23:32 GMT

In article <slrnaris8o.sc4.eirik@kain.mi.uib.no>,
Eirik Seim <eirik@mi.uib.no> wrote:
>Trying to compare the Internet with a street, and your computer with
>your house is silly. Probing random IP addresses for vulnerable hosts
>is equally silly. You cannot expect everyone on the Internet to live
>up to _your_ expectations about what is decent behaviour, thus designing
>medical equipment so that it relies on administration from the Internet
>somehow, as described previous in this thread, is just plain stupid.

What's annoying is how different cyberspace is from the "real world" in
this regard. In the real world, it's usually not necessary to be
ultra-paranoid. While it's wise to be vigilant and lock your doors, it's
not necessary for most people to have fancy home security systems. There
are "bad guys" out there, but the probability that they'll hit your house
is minute (unless you're a very attractive target, like the home of a
celebrity).

On the Internet, on the other hand, the bad guys are going after everyone.
It's like living in a neighborhood where gunfights break out regularly; you
don't dare venture outside without wearing a bulletproof vest. (Hmm, I
wasn't thinking of the DC-area sniper when I wrote that -- maybe it was
subconscious.) 

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@genuity.net
Genuity, Woburn, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.

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