DHOSEK@HMCVAX.BITNET.UUCP (02/14/87)
The objections to having students reading Info-VAX is completely unfounded. The sort of security information that is likely to be of use to a hacker trying to break in to a system is rarely (if ever) obtained from a public mailing list such as Info-Vax. To my knowledge, important security information is more often traded by hackers via dial-in bulletin boards... are we to attempt to prevent people from using their micro to call a local bulletin board? Then why should we not allow them to read info-vax. I have yet to see anything on Info-Vax that could pose a security threat... perhaps I'm not knowledgable enough to recognize a threat when I see one... Of course if I was, then I probably wouldn't need to read info-vax to find out the security information... I would either have gotten it dialing into my local bulletin board or I would be in a position where I could get at it with little difficulty. To the people at those schools that do not permit students to read info-vax: How do you propose to keep them from subscribing themselves? Or having a friend somewhere else getting it from them? Do you permit them to read any Arpa mailing lists at all? Why not? Don't you think that they might learn something subscribing to a physics mailing list, or an Atari mailing list? Do you have a `big brother' program at your school? -Don Hosek Editor, TeXMaG <DHOSEK@HMCVAX.BITNET> ``These are my own opinions and not representative of Harvey Mudd College, The Claremont Colleges, TeXMaG, or the Reagan Administration... G'day.''