It is a bit like allowing one
extra hour for security-related lines at the airport after 9/11.
Viruses and worms
in?¬‚uenced the way
in which we think
about computer
security
10 The Problem
The Rush to Web 2.0 and Asset Virtualization
What we??™ve seen so far aimed for the destruction of value and,
in minor measure, for the improper acquisition of resources. It
was a rough exploration; often the motivation for doing
something was simply that you could. Today??™s world is far less
na??ve. Also thanks to those early bad experiences, security is
being tightened up at every level and almost everything is more
secure by default. Yet, we are registering the highest cybercrime
rates in history. Many factors contribute to this situation, but one
is certainly worth mentioning: The amount of value accessible
from computer systems today grew to a point that gaining
improper access to even a fraction of it is a highly pro?¬?table
endeavor.
In the personal-productivity era, the valuable resource was the
computer itself and the capabilities of the software it contained.
Apart from the local networks (we cover local networks in detail
in ???Passwords: Ascent and Decline???) initially limited to a relatively
thin slice of white-collar workers, access to the computer
was just a matter of knowing the BIOS password.
Pages:
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44