The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

One of the best ways to get rid of cockroaches in your kitchen is to scatter bread-crumbs under the stove, right? Wrong! That's a dumb idea. One of the best ways to discourage hacking on the Internet is to give the hackers stock options, buy the books they write about their exploits, take classes on "extreme hacking kung fu" and pay them tens of thousands of dollars to do "penetration tests" against your systems, right? Wrong! "Hacking is Cool" is a really dumb idea.

Find out why and lots more on Marcus Ranum's piece [via Slashdot]
That reminds me of some of the physical and network security measures that some of our famed software services companies adopt:
1) I was not allowed to take my Walkman (yes, yes, those that play only tapes) because it was an 'electronic' item and I didn't have a permit. They had no problems with people walking in with camera phones.
2) You can't carry CDs or Floppy disks. But they provide 2mbps net connections to their employees. [If you are blinking: one can send files to their mail ids for one. Think now.]

I can think of more, but I am curious about what you think. Comment away ahh?

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