Gene Spafford Quotes

• The only system which is truly secure is one which is switched off and unplugged, locked in a titanium lined safe, buried in a concrete bunker, and is surrounded by nerve gas and very highly paid armed guards. Even then, I wouldn't stake my life on it.

  Gene Spafford

  Nerves, Safe, Bunkers

  38 Copy quote

• The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards.

  Gene Spafford

  Block, Security Systems, Rooms

  "Computer Recreations: Of Worms, Viruses and Core War" by A. K. Dewdney, Scientific American, www.koth.org. March 1989.

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• While travelling near Tampa, Florida I passed the "Jehovah's Witness Assembly Hall" and was struck by the fact that that must be where they make them.

  Gene Spafford

  Christian, Religious, Florida

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• Secure web servers are the equivalent of heavy armoured cars. The problem is, they are being used to transfer rolls of coins and cheques written in crayon by people on park benches to merchants doing business in cardboard boxes from beneath highway bridges. Further, the roads are subject to random detours, anyone with a screwdriver can control the traffic lights, and there are no police.

  Gene Spafford

  Light, Bridges, People

  Simson Garfinkel, Gene Spafford (1997). “Web Security & Commerce”, O'Reilly Media

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• Securing an environment of Windows platforms from abuse - external or internal - is akin to trying to install sprinklers in a fireworks factory where smoking on the job is permitted.

  Gene Spafford

  Jobs, Smoking, Abuse

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• People in general are not interested in paying extra for increased safety. At the beginning seat belts cost $200 and nobody bought them.

  Gene Spafford

  People, Safety, Cost

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• Using encryption on the Internet is the equivalent of arranging an armored car to deliver credit card information from someone living in a cardboard box to someone living on a park bench.

  Gene Spafford

  Car, Encryption, Credit

  "Rants & Raves", www.wired.com. November 25, 2002.

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• But it doesn't have to be this way. We can do things better. We need to stop doing business as usual and start focusing on end-to-end quality. Security needs to be built in from the start - not slapped on after the fact.

  Gene Spafford

  Quality, Usual, Needs

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• The Internet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhoea - massive, difficult to re-direct, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it.

  Gene Spafford

  Elephants, Mind, Computer

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• Ability to type on a computer terminal is no guarantee of sanity, intelligence, or common sense.

  Gene Spafford

  Common Sense, Guarantees, Computer

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• Cryptography [without system integrity] is like investing in an armored car to carry money between a customer living in a cardboard box and a person doing business on a park bench.

  Gene Spafford

  Integrity, Car, Investing

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• Questioning the status quo can result in banishment, imprisonment, ridicule or being burned at the stake, depending on your era, your locale, and the sacred cows you wish to butcher.

  Gene Spafford

  Wish, Cows, Sacred

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• Our examination of computer viruses leads us to the conclusion that they are very close to what we might define as "artificial life." Rather than representing a scientific achievement, this probably represents a flaw in our definition.

  Gene Spafford

  Achievement, Viruses, Examination

  "Computer Viruses: A Form of Artificial Life?". Artificial Life II, Studies in the Sciences of Complexity, Volume XII, edited by D. Farmer, C. Langton, S. Rasmussen, and C. Taylor, 1991.

  16 Copy quote

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