Re: Urgent News Flash

Daniel,

Very well said.

I guess over my years with all I have worked with for, "over my dead body" is the default answer for anything much more than the time and date; but I've had 24 years to get used to that. Privacy of student data, privacy of medical records, privacy of telecommunications, secrecy of government and commercial matters, and guarding them against all potential enemies, foreign and domestic, has become part of my immune system.

Which is a bit of a hypocritical joke, my average offices achieve security through obscurity: only myself and God could find a particular document. I do organize, file, and destroy, twice a year, whether it needs it or not, usually on the weekend.

And wax and polish everything, removing the thousands of Lucent logos (ah, I mean coffee rings) and tidy it all. And every ensuing Monday morning total panic breaks out because they're afraid I decided to just up and quit. Perhaps something in the lemony, fresh scent induces panic through some pathway like phermerones trigger behaviors. Perhaps they should ban lemon scented furniture polish.

In any case, I agree completely in a philosophical, 'in vitro' way with what you said, but in 'in vivo', I don't like what's going on all over the place terribly much.

I do not think basic human rights and the laws protecting them should be very elastic.

If Sir needs a size 40 waist instead of Sir's more customary 34, there should be valid legal instruments, available to, and subject to, the approval of, the public; beyond tweaky little nits, the US Constitution is something I would hope remains generally inelastic, subject of course to a Supreme Court that's not off either side of the deep end.

I think the US has already gone off the radar in certain areas, that the framers of the Constitution would be appalled by. On the other hand, a few hundred years ago, we didn't have electronic communications; or nuclear, biological, or chemical weaponry; in short, back then, the combination of the ability, enablement, and people whose 'moral framework' could allow them to commit abominable and unspeakable horror on a mass scale, in a fraction of an eyeblink, didn't exist then.

I am sure it's a lot easier when all you need do is press a button, or mail a package, or just click a trigger of a shoulder-mounted SAM launcher, and spread a loathsome contagion, poison people outright, or just blow hundreds or thousands of innocent souls, or rather, the bodies that contained them a moment before, to bits.

In any case, Daniel, if it were up to me, myself, alone, I'd say the hell with all of this stuff. If I get on an aircraft and am blown to bits, I am at peace with God (or reasonably so), or a train, or whatever new ghoulish thing these monsters are thinking up to do to us next, fine.

But I cannot make that choice for the fathers, mothers, children, boyfriends, girlfriends, partners, the flight crew, the people on the ground we might harm if we crashed, and for the families and friends of all of these people.

Every incremental type of threat they make takes away an equal or greater increment of our freedoms. Which is exactly what they want. And that is what is happening, as we all know.

If it were just me, I'd say do your worst, I've been prepared to die most of my life, whether in service to my country, to save another, by some crack maniac with a gun, or most likely, at the age of 92 of a cold. But I cannot make that decision for others and their families.

Which returns me to: at the very least, of all times possibly in human history, we need ethical, obstinate people as the gatekeepers to databases, telecommunications and other conduits and repositories for and of human existence. Who have brains in their heads, not bricks.

If a NEST team stormed in my office (Nuclear Emergency somethingsomething) and showed proper ID [those are US defense/science/criminal specialists who only get loose when a nuclear device or materiel to make such is suspected; I'd probably have a coronary], I don't think I'd dicker about a warrant or court order. Or a CDC emergency response unit. I don't think I'd be picky about anything posing an imminent threat to human health, life, or property. But I'd need to know why, legal paperwork or no.

"I'm from the FBI and I want a list of all your unmarried blonde females between the ages of 18 and 24" would need a tad more substantiation, badge or not.

RSH. "Daniel Morgan" <dmorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote in message news:3CFE2AFE.7C66E2ED_at_exesolutions.com...
> RSH wrote:
>
> > Well, I was thinking, bloody hell.
> >
> > If I've ever done anything interesting, I'd hope the government would
have
> > the courtesy to tell me about it, so I could know the so far
undiscovered
> > naughty bits of my life from somebody, and hope at least they were fun.
> >
> > The ISP's (many of the major ones, especially the US based ones) have
begun
> > voluntarily screening, filtering and sorting, and collating, and handing
> > over things they feel whomever in the US Government might find of
interest.
> > What, I don't know; presumably email and other things related to
terrorism
> > and such. This can be done now essentially without what once was called
due
> > process of law. Apparently this extends to cellular telephony and even
what
> > once were sacrosanct simple analog telephone calls.
> >
> > Also there's the poor computer system that was initially given the
extremely
> > pejorative name of Carnivore [that the FBI has since renamed to
something
> > more benign, like THX-1138], that's hugely powerful at processing and
> > sorting most of the data passing through the Internet, and they
apparently
> > can feed it a list of people or IP addresses or whatever and it goes off
> > like a trained Doberman.
> >
> > But get real everyone.
> >
> > There's been all sorts of direct and circumstantial evidence indicating
that
> > terrorists and the like have been making use of the Internet for quite
some
> > time in coordinating their plans, and there's even web sites with Martha
> > Stewart [No aspersion or offense meant to Ms. Stewart] "How to Build A
> > Horrible And Devastating, Yet Decorative Bomb" recipes. After September
11,
> > someone had to unleash the bloodhounds.
> >
> > I honestly do not know what to think or say, as an American, or as an IT
/
> > Database / Telecomm / Defense person. I know numerous freedoms are being
> > infringed in unprecedented ways (for Americans; the Official Secrets
Acts
> > and such give some of our friends a bit more muscle). And all of our
militia
> > groups are up in arms about it all (not in the literal sense,
hopefully.)
> >
> > Any random idiot knows all telephone calls placed or received within the
> > greater Washington DC area have been on intercept for years (widely
rumored,
> > I haven't seen the actual process, and therefore could not attest to it
> > factually).
> >
> > And should know that the NSA has the legal right, and uses it, to
intercept
> > any electronic communications it chooses that cross the US borders or
> > airspace. I don't know who does the DC stuff, but in the NSA case, there
at
> > least used to be a rule that if either party to the call was a US
citizen,
> > the NSA had to just vault it, and could not divulge whatever they
glommed
> > onto outside the agency. (Besides, it's a wonder anybody can call anyone
in
> > greater DC, between using an Area Code, not using one, using 1+7 digit,
> > omitting the 1, using 10 digit, with or without a 1 in front....)
> >
> > I would suppose all bets are off, now.
> >
> > But not all bets are off.
> >
> > The people like us that have been entrusted with the ultimate
responsibility
> > for personal information, medical data, and other records that could be
> > abused in the wrong hands, have a duty to "Question Authority", ask all
> > these people who the hell they are, get clearance [in written form, if
> > you're smart] from Corporate Legal, Medicolegal Records Retention, the
> > office of the Judge Advocate General (or whatever you non-Colonists call
the
> > base lawyers/investigators) that stipulates specifically, in detail,
what
> > information is wanted, in what form, the reason for the demand, and the
time
> > frame in which it is wanted, and stipulates and instructs you, in
detail,
> > how you are to provide it.
> >
> > It was always AT&T/Bell policy to tell any government geek with any kind
of
> > legal paperwork to go to Hell, and after they got done with that, go see
> > Corporate Legal to have them write out orders, and nothing without a
> > signature from a Bell/AT&T lawyer, on proper forms, would be acceptable.
> >
> > (After which they were thankful for the brief sojourn in Hell, where the
> > coffee is at least hot, they have better donuts, and at least the Sports
> > Illustrateds and People and Time are less than 20 years old.)
> >
> > Even with this dreadful threat (or series of threats) hanging over us,
we
> > still have a duty to the people that entrust us to protect their data
and
> > communications against improper intrusion, examination, duplication, or
> > worst of all, alteration.
> >
> > I don't think that's any kind of oath they make you swear in Oracle
School,
> > but perhaps, it ought to be.
> >
> > Database Architects and Designers and Senior DBA's and DBA/Managers out
> > there, listen up; if you do not have systems and methods and procedures
in
> > place to protect your data, or if necessary, to obliterate it if Nasty
> > [i.e.., terrorist type] People show up, start thinking about it, have a
core
> > security / terrorism (oh, call it Disaster Management if you want) group
> > including the senior production SA and DBA, development SA & DBA, the
> > Architect/Managing DBA/blah, the Network Administrator, and the Security
> > Administrator, and talk to each other.
> >
> > Entrance keycoding that includes a "yeah let us in, but guys with guns
are
> > behind me, so send lots of cops on silent alert would be nice" code is
nice
> > to have. Outright access denial can make people, particularly you.
> >
> > It's never come to this, but I've worked some sneaky FKD measures into
> > systems (Few Keys Destroy); "Oh golly, it'll just be a few
> > minutes".........like until we get backup tapes from Wyoming, by which
time
> > the FBI et al will have your butts in jail.
> >
> > More innocuously, little scripts and stored procedures that, say, set
off an
> > entire ANALYZE, COMPUTE of the database can buy time as well. In any
case,
> > users in Podunk, Iowa will not be happy; but Oracle has yet to provide a
> > clandestine way for the Managing DBA to send a message like:
> >
> > "Sorry for the inconvenience. Oracle Services will be temporarily
> > unavailable until the police come and take away this guy holding a gun
to my
> > head. If you have an urgent request, please direct it to x8-1775 during
the
> > interim for assistance. Thank you."
> >
> > RSH.
> >
> > "Niall Litchfield" <niall.litchfield_at_dial.pipex.com> wrote in message
> > news:3cfd28d8$0$8509$cc9e4d1f_at_news.dial.pipex.com...
> > > "RSH" <RSH_Oracle_at_worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
> > > news:Hp7L8.23356$UT.1600981_at_bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> > > > No, we just don't need to be crooks or terrorists.
> > > >
> > > > RSH.
> > > >
> > > > <Adndrew_at_novaresponse.com.au> wrote in message
> > >
> > > and anyway if the Australian govt comes knocking I'll just tell them
where
> > > to go. They don't have jurisdiction in Hampshire.
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Niall Litchfield
> > > Oracle DBA
> > > Audit Commission UK
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
> Freedom, liberty, privacy, security etc. are not tangible assets. They are
> labels that can be applied to many different things and are intended to
> communicate something about the nature thereof.
>
> So one must be as willing to modify their definition of what constitutes
> acceptable levels of each depending upon the reality of the environment.
This is
> not a place where absolutes have a lot of value except to talking heads.
>
> Inevitably things will tighten up due to real or perceived threats. There
will
> be some egregious excesses. Then things will relax. Then it will repeat
again
> sometime later. It is a pattern as predictable as the waves on the ocean.
>
> Daniel Morgan
>
Received on Wed Jun 05 2002 - 17:02:34 CDT