News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by saiya-jin on Friday September 23, 2016 @08:58AM (#12564202)
I get what you mean, but poor defense ain't no excuse to hack the hell out of company, neither legally nor morally. plus i don't buy the notion that some teenager had no clue what he was doing would harm other's livehood (if yes, then he should go through psychiatric evaluation).

if I don't put 3m electric fence with automatic sentry guns around my whole hypothetical house and land, does it mean everybody is automatically invited to freely try to break in, do damage, steal my stuff or post my private and legal data online for others?

state should have better use for these guys, but there should definitely be punishment, not reward in any way. that's how all countries run these days

Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by thr0waway1239 on Friday September 23, 2016 @10:06AM (#12564692)
I am not sure the analogy is very accurate. You do not advertise your house as a place where other people can come and freely store their valuables and then take it out as they please.

If you did, there is a name for what you have built: a bank. And you can be pretty sure people then will not have any issues with whatever security measures you take. Most of all, your cost of security installation is now covered by other people's money, which effectively gives you very precise calculations on what exactly you can and cannot spend. You are more than free to return the money and shut down shop if you feel you are in a completely unsafe neighborhood which makes your bank impossible to run at a profit.

To stretch this point a little further, imagine you did have a bank, and your customer comes and demands to take their money out, and you say "Oops. I had just left it out here on this desk, and when I went to pee, a kid just came in and ran out with all your money. I feel bad for you, but the cost of moving the stuff back and forth between front desk and the vault would make the service unprofitable. Its not my fault, its all these children in the neighborhood who keep pranking me".

The lowered barriers to hacking, combined with an ever moving target for what constitutes good security, are genuine concerns. But as a company, you are expected to shoulder the burden of security as a precondition of making the claim that you provide a good service. One way or another, people actually pay you to take care of their data as part of the service.

Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by posterboy on Friday September 23, 2016 @12:09PM (#12565633)
> You do not advertise your house as a place where other people can come and freely store their valuables

A house offers protection, no doubt about it and anyone but a social recluse will potentially offer it to others, although not foreigners. You are certainly not trying to say negligence would be OK as long as it concerns foreigners.

Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by rodgerd on Friday September 23, 2016 @10:52PM (#12569214)
> I am not sure the analogy is very accurate. You do not advertise your house as a place where other people can come and freely store their valuables and then take it out as they please.

Your bank doesn't have weapons turrets in its physical branches, either.

Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by arobertson on Friday September 23, 2016 @09:52AM (#12564586)
I don't think the house analogy works. You don't keep other peoples stuff at your house. If you ran a storage warehouse, I'm pretty sure your customers would expect you to have adequate security. If a customer came in through the back door of my warehouse, and told me the lock doesn't work, I wouldn't punish him. I would fix the lock.
Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by ctrl-j on Friday September 23, 2016 @10:13AM (#12564747)
> If a customer came in through the back door of my warehouse, and told me the lock doesn't work, I wouldn't punish him. I would fix the lock.

And if that same customer smashed a bunch of stuff, vandalized the walls, and stole product that was being stored in the warehouse - you'd prosecute the hell out of him... and then fix the lock.

Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by cmdrfred on Friday September 23, 2016 @09:55AM (#12564609)
Indeed but if you don't build a fence around your swimming pool and a child wanders over and drowns that is often on you. I'd like to see some fines for negligence in examples like this. Both the attacker and the victim are at fault in my opinion.
Re:Sad reality: It's cheaper to get hacked than build strong... by M_Grey on Friday September 23, 2016 @01:28PM (#12566357)
If you have a swimming pool on your property, then yes you need to fence it, and fence it well. If some kid climbs that fence and drowns in your pool, kiss that property goodbye.

"Attractive Nuisance"