An open letter to the Diary Master (edit)

Dear Diary Master,

Now that you’ve announced the hacker attack was successful in deleting this summer’s entries and there’s no recovering them, I have some thoughts about enhanced security and the money to pay for it:

According to this morning’s Open Diary opening page, OD has 310,166 total diaries. Of that amount, 2,590 are paid subscribers leaving 307,576 unpaid.

Why not try tiered pricing? Charge a minimum of $1.00 per year, to the unpaid users to do anything other than read the diaries!

In other words;
Allow your “readers” to READ diaries for free.

1. If a reader wants to create their own diary, or leave notes in other’s diaries, they become a subscriber at $1.00 per year.

2. If they want to do everything in #2 above, AND avoid advertising, they pay the present $24 per year for OD+.

   Yes, I’m sure there will be some users that will choose to go elsewhere but I believe most wouldn’t mind paying $1.00 a year for enhanced security.

    

    

    

   To borrow a phrase or two from your 10/15/2004 entry:

    “Every individual in this community invests so much into his or her diary. Dreams, confessions, remembrances – each diary is imprinted deeply with the texture of the author’s life. Each diary is a separate treasure – whether genius or pedestrian, insightful or insipid, every diary here is valuable, to the person writing it and to the community as a whole.  

    

    

To see each person expressing their grief over what they have lost and what their friends have lost has been heartbreaking.”

Hell, even if the hacker is caught, they get a slap on the wrist. Read here what happened to the most famous hacker of all time and how he’s back!

As you probably know, the profile of a hacker and/or a virus writer is, "A male, obsessed with computers, l

acking a girlfriend, aged 14 to 34, capable of sowing chaos worldwide."   

These guy’s are driven by a different drummer and see nothing "wrong" with attacking Open Diary OR the Department of Defense website. They honor each other commensurate with publicity received and damage done. The importance of our "piddling little diaries" are of no importance to these guys.

The only thing that’s effective is rigorous defensive measures and, as you know, that’s expensive!

I’m sure you know your ministrations about Karma are not going to shame the hackers into stopping their attacks! Only security measures stop (or slow down) hacker attacks! ("Hackers: The Underbelly of Cyberspace.")  

Increase your subscription charges to get the cash to take a real step towards putting an end to these attacks. I think people will pay a small fee to enhance security for their entries, don’t you? Give them the opportunity to do so … to protect their “asset.” 

In doubt as to whether it’s the right thing to do? Publicize it, put it to a real OD survey, and get your reader’s opinions. I think you’ll be surprised with the amount of support you’ll garner!

Moreover, don’t users of a product (OD) have a requirement to pay, albeit minimally, for the use of that product? Aren’t the recent security breaches a manifestation of undercapitalization? I think the timing is perfect; your unpaid membership would buy it on that point alone! Why not try it?

It’s only a buck to the unpaid membership Bruce, but the extra $200,000 – $300,000 a year or so, would go a long way towards guaranteeing security to our diaries and simplifying your life, no?

In summary … charge a buck, and spend a portion of the cash flow on additional security refinements. 

 "It’s only a buck Bruce!" 

Thanks for your past efforts.

 Best wishes,

<span style=

“COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Bookman Old Style’; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt”>Nunzio

PS:   

I don’t want to leave this subject without addressing unprotected computers with the rest of my friends at OD.

Hackers are very effective at covering their tracks, that’s why they’re so hard to find and prosecute. The person who hacked into OD most assuredly hid his trail. As I understand it, one very effective and popular way to dispense a hack or virus attack is for the hacker to find someone else’s unprotected computer, connect to it and attack from it. Wouldn’t it be something if the hacker used one of our computers to direct his attack at OD!

Those who plug into the net with an unprotected computer, assist the hacker or virus distributor in his destructive mission. Since we are ALL connected to each other, through the net, I classify the behavior of those who operate unprotected as irresponsible … they increase the risk of attack for all of us. This isn’t a harmless toaster or TV we’re operating here. An unprotected computer provides a path to my computer, to all of our computers! It’s no different than operating a "smoggy" car; you’re damaging the environment that belongs to all of us, so you get a ticket and pay a fine. (And you must fix the car before it’s allowed on the streets again!)

Soon we’ll be able to hold unprotected computer users liable in court for the damage they "assisted" the hacker with. There’s already plenty of case law to prove it is illegal to expose others to risk or damage without disclosure or protection. The courts have said, "An individual should not suffer loss, or the potential for loss, caused by the improper or unwise acts of another."

Edit 10/19/2004 @7:24 PM –

Diary Master Response:

The security upgrades you installed sound good, but they also sound expensive. Does that mean you will raise the OD Plus subscription price, or do away with OD Free accounts?

Absolutely not. The upgrades have been very expensive, but I have no intention of raising subscription prices as a result. I feel at this point that beefed-up security is the single most important thing to OD as a community – so it will take first priority in the budget, after we pay our monthly server fees.

I don’t ever intend do discontinue our OD Free diary accounts – the vast majority of our users are here as Free users,  and I want them to be able to stay.

Edit 10/16/2004 @ 6:54 PM:

 

 

 

The following is a response to Silvertree’s note, left on her diary, but who apparently, subscribes to the, “Delete their note if you don’t agree with their opinion,” line of thinking.

RYN: "Remember not all hackers are morons who want to distroy (sic) what they hack into."

Hmm … I think you’re right. I associated hacking with destruction. I guess the key word

here is, "All." As in, “All generalizations are bad, including this one.”

I concede that "all" hackers are probably not destroyers but I wonder what percentage is?

2 – I’m afraid the guy who breaks into my house, standing in my living room at 3:30 in the

morning, without stealing anything, would get shot. The courts have stated, I would have

acted within my rights as a reasonable, prudent man would have concluded the “robber”

was there to do harm.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Best wishes, [Nunzio]

 

 

Response:

The number of people who are hackers and do not do damage are high, you only have to look around hacker communities to see how they feel about doing damage once into a system. Simply because it is those idiots who do the damage who get into the news or get heard about

does not mean that there are not far more who simply do it for the knowledge.

There is no skill in breaking into a home, and that is your own personal property not public.

Of course, anyone who owns a gun and shoots deserves to be broken into, and anyone who think s in that way is obviously the sort of person to react so over the top to a harmless and educational hobbie – one I am sure without we’d be free from the wonderful technology we have today. [Silvertree]

Response:

Thanks for your thoughts.

Best wishes, [Nunzio]

(I never knew hacking was considered a "harmless and educational hobbie." [sic])

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