In defense of NASA: was Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights

From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman_at_theestopinalgroup.com>
Date: Fri Jun 9 11:43:34 2000

> > Is
> > the lack of security on the Internet possibly a well designed feature
> > disguised as a flaw?
>
> No, it is because much of it is Unix oriented. And Unix
> security is just not that good.

This isn't quite right, but does explain why Internet security
has not improved.

First and foremost, like most other ARPA projects (such as
Multics), the ARPAnet was meant to be a prototype for what
a network could be. One of the base-level assumptions was
that it would provide information sharing between a small
number of trusted and trusting sites.

However, from my own personal experience, I have never
succeeded in creating a prototype of a system to show to
management that management didn't say "a few more tweaks
and we're done". Although prototypes, both Multics and
ARPAnet were rushed into production because no one wanted
to take the time to stop and do it over again, better the
second time.

regards,
-doug quebbeman
Received on Fri Jun 09 2000 - 11:43:34 BST