Date:         Fri, 15 Dec 2000 11:05:08 -0600
Reply-To:     Chris Smith <chris.smith@AQUILA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chris Smith <chris.smith@AQUILA.NET>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon.com site
Comments: To: Sersote@AOL.COM
In-Reply-To:  <9d.e91f3d3.276ad954@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 09:17 PM 12/14/00 -0500, Paul M. Hillbish wrote:
>In a message dated 12/14/00 11:22:58 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>wdavidson@thegrid.net writes:
>
><< Should we let all people off who break the law just because they could have
>  committed worse crimes? ... strange logic.
>   >>
>
>I'm not saying anything about that. What I am illustrating, is that there are
>levels of offense. To go back to the chalk example, would you prosecute that
>person, and give them the same sentence as you would a person that did it in
>spray paint? I'm not promoting lack of punishment, but you seem to want to
>give this person the death sentence. Do you think that's fair? Or would you
>agree that a certain level of punishment is needed? You are acting as if this
>person hacked you bank account and went on a shopping spree. That would be
>more severe correct? You would want strict vengeance for that. I would.
>That's my opinion though.


The fact is that as long as there are web servers, there will be folks
trying to get in.  Right or wrong, there is not much that can be done to
stop attempts.  Keeping them out is up to every site administrator.  The
'net stretches to every corner of the globe.  The laws vary
widely.  Planning on fighting of hacks just goes with running a machine on
the net.  (this is also a good thought to keep in mind for anyone with a
24/7 connect)  I have seen some great targets and some mild ones.  We were
lucky this time.  The hole in Vanagon.com's server was huge.  We can all
demand that the hacker be strung-up by his/her toes, but it won't do
anything to stop it in the future.

I don't want to discount the efforts that our volunteer web master has put
forward to keep the whole thing running as well as it does.  It would be
easy to just turn over everything to a "free" server site, but who wants to
deal with all the ads and cookies.  We have a good thing, lets try to help
stop attacks in the future not cry for the death of the hacker.

Ahh, that felt good..

<RANT MODE OFF>

Thank Ja it's Friday!

I'm now done with this subject and will return to worrying about the
elections (I know a decision came down, but no one tell me, I'm taping it).

Chris Smith