Readers' Comments

Reader Comments on Aardvark Daily 6 Nov 2000
From: Edwin Hermann
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Aardvark saves the day!

Thanks to Aardvark, a friend has saved probably thousands
of dollars.

This morning she showed me a promotional CD-ROM about a
SkyBiz2000 scheme in which she was considering 'investing'
a considerable amount of money.

As soon as I heard the name 'SkyBiz' the alarm bells went
off.  I vaguely remember having read about something like
that on Aardvark.

The search on Aardvark proved me right.  I showed the
friend a few articles about it and how it was an illegal
pyramid scheme.  She is now going to stay well away from it.

Thanks Aardvark!




From: Richard
For : The Editor (for publication)
Subj: Interception capabilities

In the IDG article "All networks to be capable of
interception" if find it worring that the proposed
amendments allow "the authorised agencies to intercept
digital communications or hack into computer systems."

While I can see the possibility of needing to intercept
email and cellular messages, I wonder about the ability or
necessity of needing to "hack" into systems.

If someone has suspect banking transactions, will our
internet banking systems be attempted to be broken into?
(Mind you, I believe banks hand over access on demand
anyway...)

What if said person(s) banks/computes offshore - would the
agencies of the NZ government attempt to hack an offhore
system?

How would corporations such as Deloittes or IBM feel about
intrusions into their systems where (suspect) customers
have outsourced to? Again, what if the outsourcing is
offshore?

If you wished to store data that was of interest to said
agencies, surely you would store it *offline* on a
protected internal network and only move the data online in
unpredictable "bursts"? Would the new raft of personal &
professional firewalling products become illegal if the
government couldn't bypass them? If you leave backdoors you
also take the risk that the hacker community will find them
(such as CDC's BackOrifice).

Oh and as for GSM's encryption, that been broken already.
(I am unsure if the standard was strengthened since then).
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