Re: [tlug] outsourcing email service

[<burlingk@example.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: tlug-bounces@example.com [mailto:tlug-bounces@example.com]?? Behalf Of
> stephen@example.com
> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 11:34 AM
> To: Tokyo Linux Users Group
> Subject: Re: [tlug] outsourcing email service
> 
> 
> Josh Glover writes:
> 
>  > Heh. You do realise that Google has the world's most powerful
>  > supercomputer, right? I would adopt a slightly less 
> cavalier attitude
>  > than "let them scan away" if it is data that is actually sensitive.
> 
> "Most powerful" no longer has scalar meaning.  I expect that Google
> would lose an awful lot of money if they spent the time and effort to
> retune their system to cracking.
I'll get to the point (eventually).  As much as we like to talk about security, our security when it comes to anything over the internet depends a lot on the honesty of others.  Our data goes out over the phone lines, and bounces from one machine to the next as the packets are forwarded on.  We assume that they are forwarded faithfully, following the route that the routers have deemed the path of least resistance.  We expect from time to time that there will be a little delay.  We assume that none of these machines that are forwarding this data have been set up to log and analyze this data.  Any of a million machines could potentially be looking over anything that is sent through it.

My point is this, security in computers, just like in anything else, depends more on the honesty of the majority than on the actual strength of the lock.  Locks are to keep honest people honest.  The random jerk that decides he has nothing better to do than look at  your data, will probably find a way.  Yes, encrypt  your data if you are worried about someone reading it, but if the possibility of it being read is enough for you not to send it, then maybe a floppy disk or a CD would be a better transfer medium.

Most of these machines and the people monitoring them are doing just that, monitoring.  Your data will pass through their systems in a blur, never to be thought of again.  You would be surprised how much information out there is so easy to just shrug off.

That one yahoo that decides he wants to screw with people's day is not worth getting paranoid over.  Take precautions, but don't lose sleep over it.