Nelson B Bolyard wrote: > Jean-Marc Desperrier wrote, On 2008-10-20 05:33: >> Jean-Marc Desperrier wrote: > >> I realized that there's a specific reason why I don't lock my door after >> entering. [...] The door of my appartement doesnt' have an ouside handle. >> You can't enter without using the key. > > In other words, you don't have a choice. You don't need to lock your > door after entering, because your door is always locked after entering. > There is no easy way around using a key to enter. You could replace > your door with one that works differently, but you have not apparently > chosen to do so. > > You seem to like it. You described it as > >> This is a very smart solution, > > This is exactly analogous to what Eddy has proposed for Firefox.
One side is exactly analogous: the defence side. Lock it up! The threat side is not analogous. The difference here is that Jean-Marc's lock is in place because there is a lot of experience with what is an appropriate, cost effective way to deal with burglars. This has evolved over centuries, and we really do know how to do this -- as a society. The lock on his door is far more subtle than "just a lock." It is a lot easier because of the history, also because of the tangibility of the crime. When something goes missing, the average person can draw a line from the missing spot ... to the door ... to the perpetrator in a far off place. When the user forgets to lock the door ... eventually someone discovers that it is easy to have the door locked when it is only in locked state. Therefore we must all carry keys. However, with the attack we face here, few -- and certainly not the users -- have the first clue what is happening or how to fix it. (e.g., we do agree that we'd like to write something that says "for high value commerce, use XXXX" ... except we don't know what XXXX is.) > Yet you object vociferously to doing for Firefox what you do for your > own front door. Yes. E.g., did you know that the point of a good lock on a door is *not* to stop a burglar getting in, but to stop him getting out? That's why it is called a deadbolt. The burglar can always get in, the game is to stop him getting out the front door, carrying your stuff. Now, if we install a deadbolt in Firefox, that means ... something like one quarter of websites with SSL cannot be accessed. We might agree that "the state of the world today" is annoying, but we should also be able to see that such a drastic change will cause more trouble than it is worth. iang PS: https://financialcryptography.com/ for one will be "deadbolted" You may laugh, but will you have made me or my readers more secure? No chance. Will you have caused mass confusion and a move across to IE? Probably.
smime.p7s
Description: S/MIME Cryptographic Signature
_______________________________________________ dev-tech-crypto mailing list dev-tech-crypto@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-tech-crypto
