Comments on: “Of Course, I Never Reply to Spam – Except Sometimes” http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/security-corner/of-course-i-never-reply-to-spam-%e2%80%93-except-sometimes/ Wed, 08 May 2013 20:56:03 +0000 hourly 1 By: MichaelSeese http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/security-corner/of-course-i-never-reply-to-spam-%e2%80%93-except-sometimes/#comment-27 MichaelSeese Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:07:08 +0000 http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/security-corner/of-course-i-never-reply-to-spam-%e2%80%93-except-sometimes/#comment-27 A few years ago, I wrote an op-ed piece comparing surfing the Internet with driving a car. In the earliest days of the automobile, one did not need an operator’s license to drive a car. But once they became bigger, faster, and more prevalent, people began dying in accidents. Driving an automobile went from being a right to being a privilege, and users had to prove they were sufficiently competent to merit that privilege.

I see the same thing with the modern computers and the Internet. If you are careless about security, you certainly will impact your system. But if you allow your PC to become compromised, it becomes a tool for the bad guys to harm others.

So perhaps we need to establish a minimum knowledge baseline that an individual must demonstrate he has acquired before being allowed to use a computer.

Draconian? Sure. But when your carelessness can impact me, I have a right to expect you to know what you’re doing,

– Michael Seese, CISSP, CIPP
author of Scrappy Information Security

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