McCain's latest as dubious as his previous

@Sabz5150,

And you don't think Obama's ad making fun of McCain for not using email isn't about as low as you can go?

Email isn't life for everyone. My husband can't use email nor a computer but doesn't need to. I really don't think that is a prerequisite for being president.

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@westernmom,

westernmom;59774 wrote:

And you don't think Obama's ad making fun of McCain for not using email isn't about as low as you can go?

Email isn't life for everyone. My husband can't use email nor a computer but doesn't need to. I really don't think that is a prerequisite for being president.

Bam doesn't attack McCain for not using email. He attacks him for not knowing HOW to do so.

In this day and age, not being able to use a computer is bad. EXTREMELY bad. Not only from the viewpoint that you can't do basic things such as using email or browsing the web, but doing these things properly. It's easier to dupe those who do not know they're being taken for a ride.

Again, I refer to the Obama "sex-tape" trojan. There are countless other examples... the Melissa virus, the "I Love You" virus, just about anything that can be used to trick a user into doing what the malicious party wants.

The weakest link in any security situation is the human being. They can change their mind, they can allow exceptions, and yes they can be ignorant of a situation that can cost them dearly.

Computers are EVERYWHERE, they control EVERYTHING. This world is ruled by ones and zeroes.

EDIT: I will admit, nice dodging the original topic.

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@Sabz5150,

So if you have no internet, your point is moot.

1 Reply

@Drnaline,

Drnaline;59870 wrote:

So if you have no internet, your point is moot.

Got a bank account? Credit card? Driver's license? Ever done business with... well, just about anyone?

If you answered yes to ANY of these, your info is out there, ripe for the plucking.

Moreso, our most sensitive government systems are out there, just waiting to be popped open by a Chinese, Russian or even a US cracker with either a specific task or to simply earn a name for himself. A president who doesn't have a basic knowledge of the systems that encompass almost every single thing we do is rather bad in this day and age.

Among other computer controlled systems, we've got air traffic control, banks, the power grid, government databases, the list is literally endless. All vulnerable to terrorist attack, not from jihadists with explosives, but from a coffeehouse on the other side of the planet...

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@Sabz5150,

I wasn't "dodging" the topic just stating that there are 2 sides to this or should I say two parties.

I really don't think life hinges on whether a person uses a computer or email. Who said he doesn't "know how"? If he could use a computer physically without discomfort then I'm sure he would "know how" and if not it only takes a few minutes to learn.

Like I said, my hubby doesn't have a clue and he's a pretty darn successful guy. When he visits his banker he has never once asked if he knows how to email!

Usually a successful person will surround himself with a support staff that does this type of thing for him anyway. I rather doubt that he is still using stone tablets. And, I hear Clinton only sent 2 emails during his whole 8 years! But, he might have been too busy "under" the desk instead!

Obama has never served in the military. How dare he think he can be commander in chief without serving? To copy your own words:

The weakest link in any security situation is the human being. They can change their mind, they can allow exceptions, and yes they can be ignorant of a situation that can cost them dearly.
I would think this might also apply to running the military!!!

GOTCHA

1 Reply

@westernmom,

westernmom;59881 wrote:

I wasn't "dodging" the topic just stating that there are 2 sides to this or should I say two parties.

I really don't think life hinges on whether a person uses a computer or email. Who said he doesn't "know how"? If he could use a computer physically without discomfort then I'm sure he would "know how" and if not it only takes a few minutes to learn.

Like I said, my hubby doesn't have a clue and he's a pretty darn successful guy. When he visits his banker he has never once asked if he knows how to email!

Usually a successful person will surround himself with a support staff that does this type of thing for him anyway. I rather doubt that he is still using stone tablets. And, I hear Clinton only sent 2 emails during his whole 8 years! But, he might have been too busy "under" the desk instead!

Obama has never served in the military. How dare he think he can be commander in chief without serving? To copy your own words:

The weakest link in any security situation is the human being. They can change their mind, they can allow exceptions, and yes they can be ignorant of a situation that can cost them dearly.
I would think this might also apply to running the military!!!

GOTCHA

And that's why Bam plans to put a CTO in his cabinet, one of the smartest things I've heard in quite some time seeing that the White House has not had a properly working e-mail system for eight years (in violation of federal law). Yes, there was a system under Clinton but W came along and scrapped it.

Did I mention that every day that system has been down, it's a violation of federal law. Eight years... wow, that's a long time. After what I heard about how things were being handled, I would have walked in there and fired every single person I laid eyes on.

Sure, such a thing applies to the military, but again you said in your own words:

Usually a successful person will surround himself with a support staff that does this type of thing for him anyway.

Gotcha back Wink

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@Sabz5150,

Hey, I was the one that said you didn't to know how to email as others could do it for you and you insisted it was a necessity for the president to know how to do it.

You do have to admit this was another low for the Obama campaign. Another low that is backfiring on them.... And the idea of knowing how to use email and using a computer is very insignificant compared with how to run the military!!!

1 Reply

@Sabz5150,

In certain ways, McCain was a natural Web candidate. Chairman of the Senate Telecommunications Subcommittee and regarded as the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist, McCain is an inveterate devotee of email. His nightly ritual is to read his email together with his wife, Cindy. The injuries he incurred as a Vietnam POW make it painful for McCain to type. Instead, he dictates responses that his wife types on a laptop. “She’s a whiz on the keyboard, and I’m so laborious,” McCain admits.

(New York Times; July 13, 2008)

I have found where it is against the law to destroy email messages but not where it's against the law to not have email. Can you direct me to that law?

1 Reply

@westernmom,

westernmom;59906 wrote:

Hey, I was the one that said you didn't to know how to email as others could do it for you and you insisted it was a necessity for the president to know how to do it.

You do have to admit this was another low for the Obama campaign. Another low that is backfiring on them.... And the idea of knowing how to use email and using a computer is very insignificant compared with how to run the military!!!

Really? The ability to shut down a nation's base infrastructures without firing a shot is insignificant?

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@westernmom,

westernmom;59912 wrote:

"Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff"

If there's no system in place, how's it being preserved?

Catch this... they've already admitted to deleting e-mails. Guess what that is? A violation of federal law Smile

A properly implemented system would have fixed that.

These are the guys that effectively said their backup system was a journaling FS.

Oh, and great work on playing the POW card again. Sorry, that's getting kinda old.

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@Sabz5150,

Facts are facts on a persons' disabilities. But it is kinda nice that the commander in chief will have experience with the military!

Is it important for the NY governor to drive because he is over the transportation system of the state?

And your quote is the "preservation" of the emails if they are in use and so that wouldn't make it against the law NOT to use it.

Losing emails? I guess it happens to the best of us and Clinton too!

Clinton White House ?Lost? Emails Too | Judicial Watch

How would McCain not using emails "shut down the infrastructure"???

1 Reply

@westernmom,

westernmom;59941 wrote:

Facts are facts on a persons' disabilities. But it is kinda nice that the commander in chief will have experience with the military!

Is it important for the NY governor to drive because he is over the transportation system of the state?

No, but it is essential that he understands how it works and how the infrastructure functions. In respect to computers and the internet, McCain does not. This is obvious.

Quote:

And your quote is the "preservation" of the emails if they are in use and so that wouldn't make it against the law NOT to use it.

Nice twist of words. The main purpose of the system that W scrapped was to preserve these emails. Now we have bean counters LITERALLY sorting them by hand and losing millions in the process.

Quote:

Losing emails? I guess it happens to the best of us and Clinton too!

Clinton White House ?Lost? Emails Too | Judicial Watch

Does this make what has happened under W any less a violation of law? Nice shot at "WELL HE DOES IT TOO!!!" The system that was in place was put there by.... drumroll, please... Clinton!

Quote:

How would McCain not using emails "shut down the infrastructure"???

Like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target.

A remote access exploit based on a buffer overflow of an unused but active service would allow root level access of a system used as an internet firewall thereby allowing internal intranet access to more sensitive systems that most likely are susceptible to a similar exploit due to the administrator's obvious lack of oversight.

Now, tell me what I just said in layman's terms.

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@Sabz5150,

Just because he doesn't use the internet or a computer does not mean he has no understanding of it.

But, I am beginning to understand your compulsion with your candidate needing to email because I understand that he has to have all of his talking points emailed to him (before he reads them on the teleprompter) such as his 300 advisors on foreign policy!

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@Sabz5150,

A remote access exploit based on a buffer overflow of an unused but active service would allow root level access of a system used as an internet firewall thereby allowing internal intranet access to more sensitive systems that most likely are susceptible to a similar exploit due to the administrator's obvious lack of oversight.

I'm thinking you might have left the word "system" administrator out...

But would you be talking about having a weakness in the code that doesn't check the source or the destination addresses thereby allowing a worm to invade the system which all began with the Morris Worm? I'm not too literate on the issue of computers because we pay a government firm to handle all of our IT needs. Ever hear of CHM2 Hill?

1 Reply

@westernmom,

westernmom;59962 wrote:

A remote access exploit based on a buffer overflow of an unused but active service would allow root level access of a system used as an internet firewall thereby allowing internal intranet access to more sensitive systems that most likely are susceptible to a similar exploit due to the administrator's obvious lack of oversight.

I'm thinking you might have left the word "system" administrator out...

But would you be talking about having a weakness in the code that doesn't check the source or the destination addresses thereby allowing a worm to invade the system which all began with the Morris Worm? I'm not too literate on the issue of computers because we pay a government firm to handle all of our IT needs. Ever hear of CHM2 Hill?

:rollinglaugh: :rollinglaugh: :rollinglaugh:

Hardly.

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@Sabz5150,

Well, if I'm so far off please explain. I love to learn...

1 Reply

@westernmom,

westernmom;59972 wrote:

Well, if I'm so far off please explain. I love to learn...

A buffer overflow exploit is caused by making a program or process overwrite more memory space than which was allocated to it (i.e. overflowing its buffers) causing the program (and programs using adjacent memory space) to crash. The end result is usually gaining whatever privileges said process was running under.

A very simple example is the "Twilight Hack" used to run arbitrary code on a Wii. A special save is used which takes a variable (in this case, the name of the player's horse) and sets it to something ungodly large. This forces the process to write to memory areas that it shouldn't. The end result is a crash that leaves the system waiting with full privileges and no questions asked. This is useful for running code that you really shouldn't.

In regards to active but unused services, this is a common issue that many novice sysadmins do not address. Typical system installations will often include things you just don't use. In the case of a server setup, this could be anything from an NTP (network time), FTP (file transfer), or even HTTP (web) service. Services not used are usually ignored or given the "if we ever need them, they're there" dismissal. Because of this, they often go unpatched and flaws are left wide open.

A hacker can sniff a machine's ports and quickly see what services are running (each service runs on its own port... HTTP is usually port 80, FTP is usually port 21, the famous WinNuke exploit used port 139, so on and so forth), and from there it's just a matter of figuring out version numbers for the applications using those ports and finding a suitable exploit. Remote exploits are excellent because they will usually give an intruder full root access (the system asks NO questions) and then that little world is your oyster to extract sensitive info or use as a point to bounce off of to hack another machine (the subsequent hack will be shown to come from that address, not yours).

That's it in a nutshell.

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@Sabz5150,

Thanks for the explaination. I think I had the right idea but sure am not a computer guru. Our techi is here right now!!! I have other "areas of expertise!" I use a computer about 10 hours a day and have some pretty good understanding but I leave the complicated details to someone who is trained in dealing with it. Funny thing is I have a kid that has an IT degree but we don't talk computers much!

1 Reply

@westernmom,

westernmom;59984 wrote:

Thanks for the explaination. I think I had the right idea but sure am not a computer guru. Our techi is here right now!!! I have other "areas of expertise!" I use a computer about 10 hours a day and have some pretty good understanding but I leave the complicated details to someone who is trained in dealing with it. Funny thing is I have a kid that has an IT degree but we don't talk computers much!

I wasn't always a good guy Smile

Now I am. It's that experience which makes me vote towards the person more technically inclined, the one ready to put a tech at the top ranks to keep the President and his aides ahead of the curve.

Performing malicious acts through computers and the internet is unbelievably simple and it covers much more than most expect.

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McCain's latest as dubious as his previous

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