[TriLUG] spyware

[Andrew Perrin]

I think the principle is essentially that of the panopticon (perhaps in
reverse): the possibility that an observer could discover untoward
behavior without first being observed creates a disincentive for engaging
in the untoward behavior in the first place.  So I trust the package
maintainer because s/he knows that someone else could discover malicious
behavior with little cost and no prior observation.

ap

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
clists at perrin.socsci.unc.edu * andrew_perrin (at) unc.edu


On Fri, 16 Apr 2004, Mike M wrote:

> I just read an article about spyware.  I googled "linux spyware" and
> that people think Linux is immune.  That got me to thinking about the
> chain of trust I subscribe to in using Debian.  For example, I use
> mutt.  What if the upstream developer installed spyware?  Do I
> trust the Debian package maintainer to review the code and alert the
> community to the problem?  I can't spend my time reading source for
> every package I use.
>
> THe only solution I can think of is to use a live-cd like Knoppix to
> do critical and sensitive tasks like financial transactions.
>
> Anybody else thought about this?
> --
> Mike
>
> Moving forward in pushing back the envelope of the corporate paradigm.
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