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Path: utzoo!utcs!shindman
From: shindman@utcs.UUCP (Paul Shindman)
Newsgroups: net.micro,net.college
Subject: Re: Free and undirected campus computing facilities - Not at Waterloo
Message-ID: <196@utcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Nov-84 15:58:17 EST
Article-I.D.: utcs.196
Posted: Wed Nov 14 15:58:17 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Nov-84 16:24:40 EST
References: <457@utcsrgv.UUCP> <649@watdcsu.UUCP> <425@watcgl.UUCP> <652@watdcsu.UUCP> <9840@watmath.UUCP> <9844@watmath.UUCP>
Reply-To: shindman@utcs.UUCP (Paul Shindman)
Organization: University of Toronto - General Purpose UNIX
Lines: 31
Summary: 



Encountered an interesting point related to the topic. We were
in a meeting today discussing the affects of a mod to  TSO that
would make the users' lives easier, but would lead to a potentially serious
gap in system integrity.  The question then arose; "who the heck knows
about this enough who could get in and gain authorized access to 
everything through this mod???".  

  The obvious answer was that some hack would be sure to find out about
it and do something nasty, like add a million dollars to their account.
Then somebody spoke up and said, "but there aren't anymore hacks around!'.
To which we collectively thought for 5 seconds and reached the same
conclusion.

Now it could be that all the hacks have moved to UNIX and off of our IBM
systems, but there is a distinct change at U of T from 5 or so years ago
when hacks abounded on all our systems.  My personal opinion is that it is
to our collective detriment that the environment no longer exists in which
hacks can flourish.  Their presence was on the whole benficial in that they
always wanted to learn something new, and were always assisting those who
didn't know (invariably to show off their hackability) and often ended up
doing contract work or getting hired by the computer center, comp sci 
department, or some prof looking for someone who knew how to (mis)handle a
computer.

I'll forward the news on this topic around our site and add more
comments at a later date.

Paul Shindman
utcs!shindman