> Yeah, I don't care if a big chain restaurant is closed down for having too poor hygiene. But I would feel bad if someone's small restaurant had to shut down because the cook doesn't bother to wash his hands at work.
If you are holding other people's data for them, you have a responsibility to do your best to keep the data safe. If you don't know how to do that and don't have time to learn, you can hire someone who is more knowledgeable.
And what about the responsibility to not destroy someone's property?
Do you have the same opinion about shoplifters walking away with merchandise? Would your argument be that there should be armed guards and searches in every retail store? Isn't it reasonable that a thief be criticized and penalized for their actions even if the theft was "easy" to commit and is it OK to blame the victim for not being prepared?
Agree with nkrisc -- this is like, if I contracted with a storage company, and then my stuff was vandalized because the company's "secure storage location" was an unlocked box out on the sidewalk. Obviously the vandal is directly to blame, but it's also absolutely negligence from the company.
I'm sympathetic for the people who were only storing their own data, but not for companies that failed to safeguard their customers' data. If I borrow stuff from friends, I take better care of it than if it were mine. I hold companies to the same standard.
I'm not trying to disregard the negligence concern but I am trying to ensure that the perpetrator is also called out. Several of the top rated comments on this article are praising the perpetrator.
You will notice that in my post I'm not defending the people behind the meow attacks. I agree, they are very much in the wrong.
But being careless with other people's data is also wrong and we should not feel bad for companies whose negligent practices backfire on them. That is what I was trying to highlight with my analogy.
Like bacteria, there will always be bad actors trying to exploit poor security. If not these attackers, then someone else. That is why we have security measures.
The people we should feel bad for are the individual customers affected.
Ps also, there is a big difference between being careless with your own property (your analogy) and someone else's property/data/wellbeing (my analogy and the case at hand).
I agree but I don't think that changes my point that the person who destroys the data has more culpability than the storage service in the destruction of the data.
There tends to be a pass given to people destroying data and I don't think that is right.
As engineers we have to assume that there is always someone out there looking to break into our systems. We don't get to blame them for our failure to secure our systems.
For us to be angry at the hackers is as fruitless as it would be for the unhygienic cook to be angry at the bacteria.
Why are you making the assumption that I'm making the point "as an engineer" as opposed to just a citizen who thinks it is reasonable to expect people not do destroy something that doesn't belong to them?
Your analogy about bacteria doesn't make any sense, we don't expect the bacteria to be actively seeking out unhygienic cooks. If you want to use your analogy it would be like having someone shake the cook's hand in order to put a mild irritant on their hands so that when they prepare food without washing or gloving their hands the irritant is spread to the food, thus highlighting the fact that the chef wasn't following good hygiene. Would you expect that behavior to be excused? Would you be OK with that if you were the one throwing up?
You're presumably an engineer, I'm an engineer, this is an engineering forum. That is why I may have "assumed you made the point as an engineer".
It sounds as if you think I'm defending the attackers. I'm not. I'm pointing out that the presence of malicious actors is a fact of life on the Internet, like it or not.
I'm not going to take my analogy further. I think it's reasonably clear what I meant.
If you are holding other people's data for them, you have a responsibility to do your best to keep the data safe. If you don't know how to do that and don't have time to learn, you can hire someone who is more knowledgeable.