[NTLUG:Discuss] Makes you wonder...

[Kenneth Loafman]

Jack Snodgrass wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenneth Loafman" <ken at lt.com>
> To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 9:02 AM
> Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] Makes you wonder...
> 
> > http://www.dailyrotten.com/articles/archive/189387.html
> >
> > Makes you wonder...
> > Has J. Edgar Hoover been reincarnated?
> > Perhaps in the body of John Ashcroft?
> >
> 
> make me wonder what your trying to hide from the FBI?
> 
Absolutely everything!  Its none of their business unless they have
reason to suspect, then they can produce a warrant.  I value privacy.

Actually, I threw this out NOT to discuss politics, but to point out
that the "Magic Lantern" and probably other dirty tricks are in the
works, and if the FBI can come up with the idea, any number of people
can.  As Linux users we are somewhat immune to the activities mentioned
in the article, but our time is coming.  The same activities that
prevent trojans and viruses will prevent the same under Linux, for the
most part.  The discussion I was trying to start, with a bit of a
left-handed (OK, way left field) intro were:

1) What are Linux weaknesses to intrusion?
2) What trojans exist and how do we protect against them?
3) How do we detect the presence of a trojan?
4) Is there a central clearinghouse for this information?  Bugtraq? 
CERT?  If there is a central place, has is it audited against
compromise?

Taking politics out of the mix, these are all legitimate security issues
and this is the proper place to discuss them, not politically, but as
technical issues to maintain our privacy and security.  I know my intro
was over the top, but lets get back to basics and go from there.

We know that M$ is a security seive and that makes the crackers job a
lot easier.  How can we keep the same thing from happening on our side
of the world?  How do we avoid the embarrassment of poor security?

...Kenneth