Also, security and online banking, Bernie Ebbers, IPv6, more
Include wireless
Regarding “Test shows VoIP lagging in quality”: Keynote Systems did a good job in these tests, but it seems to me that cellular wireless should have been included. After all, the number of cell phones exceeds conventional phones, and the difference is growing. Indeed, wireless VoIP may become the fastest-growing segment of the market. It would be interesting to see the performance results for the above market movers.
Bob Aaron,
West Palm Beach, Fla.
Another option
Regarding “Many minds, one goal: Curb bad traffic”: What about extensions to SMTP, which force the sending e-mail server to maintain a copy of the message while sending only a text header? If you want to read the message, you download it from the server, where it is stored. Suddenly the burden of storage is on the sender, and it can be traced. If you don’t want to read the e-mail, delete the otherwise harmless header.
David Paige
Phoenix, Ariz.
Pick your poison
Winn Schwartau’s column, “When management sets the wrong security culture” was interesting and well presented. However, it left out a key bit of information of human interest to me. Why is Schwartau still a customer of MyBank and why is he still practicing online banking if the security issues are of such great concern to him? It seems to me he suffers from the problem of most computer users: He is perfectly willing to sacrifice security for convenience.
Dave Hughes
EDS contractor
Defense Information Systems Agency
Baileys Crossroads, Va.
Schwartau replies: Good point. But my local branch and vice president have been impeccable for all of these years. They are the only ones who seem to get it. When the main office screws up, they fix it. They undo the false charges. They write the letters. They worm their way through the MyBank system. I am not going to sacrifice the only thing that does work for another bank’s headaches. For what it’s worth, I pick this poison. Maybe MyBank will get it one day.
Justice served
Regarding “Justice is served – for Ebbers and all of us”:As through this life you travel, you meet some funny men;
Some rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen.
As through this life you ramble, as through this life you roam,
You’ll never see an outlaw take a family from their home.
— “Pretty Boy Floyd,” by Woody Guthrie
OK, so Bernie Ebbers is no Pretty Boy Floyd. But this particular modern outlaw took a lot of families from their homes. I work every day with people who lost their retirement, their homes, in some cases (for a while) their notion of self-worth because Ebbers is a robber.
Criminologists can provide the list of reasons we punish transgressors; I no longer remember them all. Johnson hits the key point, though. As long as Ebbers and those like him are sent off to the big house in spite of blaming underlings, others will be more careful. I am sick of those who are quick to accept the accolades of success and demand the privileges of authority, but equally quick to disclaim responsibility for failure or deny accountability for that over which they wielded authority.
With that level of authority and that degree of damage, these robbers belong in prison, with the common thug, for as long as it takes for the message to sink home – and a little more besides.
Geoffrey Langlois
Madison, Wis.
Keep IPv6 on your list
While catching up on my reading, I came across your article, “Future-proof your network”. What I found interesting was in the July 5 issue of Government Computer News, the Office of Management and Budget announced that the federal government will migrate to IPv6 by June 2008, while in your article, Tip No. 5 is to cross IPv6 off your worry list. The juxtaposition of these two articles on my desk would have been funny, if it had not been for the appearance of my manager asking what our migration path is going to be because his boss had just got a call from the agency CIO.
Time to put IPv6 back on the front burner.
David Lane
Manassas, Va.
Playing the numbers
Regarding “Schools battle personal data hacks”: The fundamental problem for many schools is that they’re using social security numbers as student ID numbers, so almost every piece of data is sensitive personal information. State schools are probably the worst at this. If they assign their own student ID numbers, then there’s much less data that needs protecting – knowing that Jane Doe, Student #123456, got a B on an exam isn’t as sensitive as knowing that Jane Doe, Student #987-65-4321 got a B, and professors routinely post this kind of thing on their doors. There’s still a need for protecting private information, and schools still need to be more careful than most of them are, but it’s much easier to protect if you avoid spreading sensitive information all over the place.
Bill Stewart
Mountain View, Calif.
Forgotten commodities
Regarding “Sprint’s devotion to wireless raises questions”: I worked at Sprint for several years and your story is right on target. However, this strategy was executed because of how commoditized wireline services are these days. Enterprise customers no longer get excited about wireline services; they want to hear about the glitzier offerings and how they integrate with the wireline offerings. So my hat’s off to the executives at Sprint for keeping the customer’s focus off of the commodities and on the jewels.
Joe Pascual
Tampa, Fla.
