Collect raw data and throw away the expected. What remains challenges your theories. (Location 390)
The hacker had fun, even if Ed didn’t. (Location 515)
The astronomer’s rule of thumb: if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen. (Location 537)
The price of hard evidence was hard work. (Location 577)
Physics: there was the key. Record your observations. Apply physical principles. Speculate, but only trust proven conclusions. (Location 767)
Somebody’s always had control over information, and others have always tried to steal it. Read Machiavelli. As technology changes, sneakiness finds new expressions.” (Location 849)
Just like genetic diversity, which prevents an epidemic from wiping out a whole species at once, diversity in software is a good thing. (Location 933)
Our networks form neighborhoods, each with a sense of community. (Location 1137)
Most networks are so complicated and interwoven that no one knows where all their connections lead, (Location 1147)
asked what cops were in charge of the Internet. (Location 1209)
“We’ll always find a few dodos poking around our data. I’m worried about how hackers poison the trust that’s built our networks. After years of trying to hook together a bunch of computers, a few morons can spoil everything.” (Location 1431)
“People want to share information, so they make most of the files readable to everyone on their computer. They complain if we force them to change their passwords. Yet they demand that their data be private.” (Location 1774)
People paid more attention to locking their cars than securing their data. (Location 1776)
The hacker didn’t succeed through sophistication. Rather he poked at obvious places, trying to enter through unlocked doors. Persistence, not wizardry, let him through. (Location 2005)
My networks were as essential to the lab as steam, water, or electricity. (Location 2070)
The networks were no more mine than the steam pipes belonged to the plumbers. But someone had to treat them as his own, and fix the leaks. (Location 2071)
Indeed, some telephone companies now sell phones that display the digits of the calling telephone as your phone is ringing. (Location 2090)
Did he know something that I didn’t? Did this hacker have a magic decryption formula? Unlikely. If you turn the crank of a sausage machine backwards, pigs won’t come out the other end. (Location 2616)
He grew up in Dorset, England, and first learned to program a computer by mail: he’d write a program at school, send it to a computer center, and receive the printout a week later. (Location 2764)
I wondered how a real professional would track this hacker. But then, who were the professionals? Was anyone dedicated to following people breaking into computers? I hadn’t met them. (Location 3208)
If you don’t document it, you might as well not have observed (Location 3354)
The bureaucrats might not be able to communicate with each other, but the technicians sure did. (Location 3722)
High security computers are difficult to get onto, and unfriendly to use. Open, friendly systems are usually insecure. (Location 4466)
“Any system can be insecure. All you have to do is stupidly manage it.” (Location 4577)
the shoemakers’ kids are running around barefoot. (Location 5239)
took advantage of administrators’ blunders. Leaving accounts protected by obvious passwords. Mailing passwords to each other. Not monitoring audit trails. (Location 5243)
For a year, the chase had consumed my life. In the course of my quest, I’d written dozens of programs, forsaken the company of my sweetheart, mingled with the FBI, NSA, OSI, and CIA, nuked my sneakers, pilfered printers, and made several coast-to-coast flights. I pondered how I would now spend my time, now that my life wasn’t scheduled (Location 5397)
That’s the problem with talking about security problems. If you describe how to make a pipe bomb, the next kid that finds some charcoal and saltpeter will become a terrorist. Yet if you suppress the information, people won’t know the danger. (Location 5535)
