RM -RF /BIN/LADEN

“I think hackers should also be considered terrorists and sentences that hackers get should be in line with terrorist sentences.”

U.S. Representative Vernon Ehlers, who’s darn lucky the Slashdot kids don’t vote in his Michigan Congressional district, Wired News, 18 October 2001

ANARCHY IN THE OS

“Much of the security community handles [security vulnerabilities] in a way that fairly guarantees their use, by following a practice that’s best described as information anarchy.”

Microsoft security manager Scott Culp, on his company’s preference for information monarchy, Microsoft TechNet, October 2001

RULE OF THUMB

“We need a thumbprint Java card in the hand of everybody in the country.”

Sun CEO Scott McNealy, on his technological fix to track terrorists among us at the cost of individual privacy, SFGate.com, 16 October 2001

WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN

“A lot of us here, even in a down market, even with the dot-com meltdown, share a conviction that this technology really is mind-bending, path-breaking and inspiring.”

Former Harvard Business School professor Jeffrey Rayport, on his struggle to turn his insights about the Internet economy into a consulting business, on his The New York Times, 14 October 2001

CRYPTOGRAPHY WANTS TO BE FREE

“There aren’t that many companies making a lot of money in the security business right now.”

Pretty Good Privacy inventor Phil Zimmermann, on learning that his privacy product, purchased by Network Associates in 1997, is being put on the block, Wired News, 12 October 2001