This Bug Man Is a Pest

When has more knowledge not both harmed and served society? The difference has always been the character of those with the knowledge. My belief is that adding security after the operating environment is created is similar to adding buggy whips to carriages after the horse is hooked up.

When security bugs are no longer built into our operating environment we will no longer need buggy whips like security add ons.

This professor is adding knowledge, parents are tasked with adding character before the professor gets the students.

Jim

I appreciate this article because it shows education is being used for an actual purpose. It sounds valid that to teach students how to hack, they can in turn create programs that could be designed to have better safeguards. Similarly it reminds me (and I'm relieved, too) that no program is truly "safe" because of hackers. We call them hackers, but all these people do is find loopholes in programs. If they were in the profession of law, we would if we had high incomes hire of these " tax lawyer hackers" to find loopholes in the law to protect as much of our large incomes as our money could afford. It's also interesting to note that what one calls "hacker" in one country is not in another. For a country that drools about free speech, some European nations have more relaxed laws security.

Back to Ledin's class, he is doing what any good teacher challenges his learners: Think outside the box and/or think how someone else would approach this challenge.

Every invention or technology has its positive and negative impact on human beings. Nuclear weapons obliterate, but nuclear reactors give energy to support life. Toxic chemicals kill, yet pesticides help to improve harvests.

Whether what Ledin does is morally acceptable or not is hard to gauge. There are hundreds of hackers all over the world, but few are indicted or convicted. Until his students produce virus to infect the standard software, they could be left alone for the time being. Nonetheless, by then it may be too late for the computer industry to get away with the nasty if not disastrous onslaught.

Well, should there be a pre-emptive measure so that any culprit suspected of intending malpractice can be nabbed by the law?
(Tan Boon Tee)

Every invention or technology has its positive and negative impact on human beings. Nuclear weapons obliterate, but nuclear reactors give energy to support life. Toxic chemicals kill, yet pesticides help to improve harvests.

Whether what Ledin does is morally acceptable or not is hard to gauge. There are hundreds of hackers all over the world, but few are indicted or convicted. Until his students produce virus to infect the standard software, they could be left alone for the time being. Nonetheless, by then it may be too late for the computer industry to get away with the nasty if not disastrous onslaught.

Well, should there be a pre-emptive measure so that any culprit suspected of intending malpractice can be nabbed by the law?
(Tan Boon Tee)