🚀 go-pugleaf

In <PCG.91Jun14182440@aberdb.aber.ac.uk> pcg@aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) writes:

>... the most heinous security crime one can commit is employing a
>sysadmin that instead of knowing his system and how to fix obvious
>problems ...

>I would send to jail inadequate, opportunistic sysadmins. These cause a
>lot more damage than a few hackers.

Well, well, well.  The normally brilliant Piercarlo Grandi, who is
one of the very few people in the world to qualify for "global
select" in my newsreader, has a destructive, childish side!  Hmmm.

I suppose, according to his line of argument, if I fail to use the
latest, high-tech lock on my front door, or if I'm so backward as
to have a sliding glass door at all, then when Mr. Holy Hacker
comes in and rapes my daughter _I'm_ the one to be killed.

Fortunately, our backward country has slightly saner laws than
those in Mr. Grandi's current home, which recognize my right to
shoot the intruder to death even before he touches my daughter, an
act which I am well trained and fully prepared emotionally to
perform.  I trust most sane people would applaud my public-spirited
action in such a case.

I am not concluding that passing along /etc/passwd should be
considered even mildly criminal.  But it is entirely reasonable to
kick him off the system completely for a term or two, so that some
work in the real world might give him more prudent judgment.  A
year's delay in the student's career is of minor consequence,
compared with the valuable gift of maturity, insight, and
consideration for others that the suspension might encourage.