cyrnel

Moyaboy, Sorry about the slow response. It's been a day. I was hoping others would jump in.

No, I was trying to get you to think of the consequences of data theft. What's on that drive? Who does it affect, and to what degree? What responsibility do you have to protect it? If none then go crazy.

Certainly, the Amish Mafia can bonk you over the head and take your computer and all belongings. I'm suggesting that while locking your front door and windows you shouldn't leave the patio door open.

You're right. I wish the default were less permissive. Remind you of the early days of file sharing? (Not P2P but MacOS/Windows/NFS/FTP...)

Certainly, Google indexing is an infosec officer's nightmare. Home users should think about it to the degree their home systems contain company or important personal information. It requires consideration. A corporate analyst that isn't thinking about this isn't doing their job.

Casual home users tend to trust the big guy, maybe more than they realize. In this case the potential loss is whatever is being shared. That's an unusually large increase in vulnerability, industry-wide, which makes it deserve the concern it's getting. Any weakness will eventually be exploited and given Google's mindshare it could cause a huge exposure.

Information security requires appropriate paranoia on an even level. Consider all points of vulnerability and apply appropriate security while maintaining usability. Appropriate means people need to do their job but not give away the store. The even level means you don't blow the budget on telepathic deadbolts while installing a unsecured wireless access point.

Small installations usually run blind. While there are many tools for server & net admins to watch for these intrusions, home/so users usually run their Norton et al and try not to look more vulnerable than the next guy. Back to part one, don't assume a new hole in the wall won't be a target just because a big company watches the door. Recall that most breaches are inside jobs. A scary part of google indexing/sharing is that it's out of our control. We're outsourcing security to an unknown entity. There's likely safety in the anonymity of scale, but that's obscurity and a no-no by itself.

I'm not against new goodies. I love toys. Some just keep me up later than others. Much of the job is striking a balance between new features and old while protecting assets.

Everybody hates the security guys.

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There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195