Insecure connections

Potential vulnerabilities in control systems are exacerbated by insecure connections. Organizations often leave access links—such as dial-up modems to equipment and control information—open for remote diagnostics, maintenance, and examination of system status. Such links may not be protected with authentication or encryption, which increases the risk that hackers could use these insecure connections to break into remotely controlled systems. Also, control systems often use wireless communications systems, which are especially vulnerable to attack, or leased lines that pass through commercial telecommunications facilities. Without encryption to protect data as it flows through these insecure connections or authentication mechanisms to limit access, there is limited protection for the integrity of the information being transmitted. 

In addition to the control system vulnerabilities mentioned earlier, several factors have contributed to the escalation of risk to control systems, including (1) the adoption of standardized technologies with known vulnerabilities, (2) the connectivity of control systems to other networks, (3) constraints on the implementation of existing security technologies and practices, (4) insecure remote connections, and (5) the widespread availability of technical information about control systems. 

Some of this may seem unnecessarily restrictive, but it is possible to walk out of a company with an enormous amount of information on a 3.5" floppy disc, CD or other storage media using an unattended PC connected to an insecure database. 

Informally, initialization is needed because authentication is completely digital and carried out over an insecure channel. Hence the signer s entity must possess digital information that enables it to act differently from any potential forger, at least on average. This information must be related to some information the recipient has in connection with the identity of this signer. Hence a secure channel under this identity must have existed at some time. 

Preserving one s room, storing one s stuff, coming by for meals, and calling if away (why that first year at college can be so expensive) all are means of staying connected when separated from family. Fear of loss of place in home and family can create enormous insecurity. "Suppose I go so far away, I can t return Then if I get in trouble, I ll have no safety net to fall back on, no home to come home to "... 

Love affairs absorb you, but you re most comfortable in a committed, traditional relationship. Shyer than you appear to be, you long for someone with whom you share a soul connection. When you feel cherished and recognized, you re utterly devoted and supportive. When you feel insecure, it s another matter. Fearful of being alone and yet unwilling to engage in conflict, you hold on too tightly for too long. When a relationship falls apart, you re devastated,... 

Jewish family ennoblements in the hundred years prior to 1900 totaled 126 in the short decade and a half between 1900 and the outbreak of the Great War the insecure conservative alliance bartered 220 more. Some thousands of men in these 346 families were ultimately involved. They were thus brought into political connection, their power of independent action siphoned away. 

The global scope of the risk society, its self-reflective quality and its pervasiveness create a new backdrop for standard moral panics. Perceptions of heightened risk evoke images of panic. And in populist and electoral rhetoric about such issues as fear of crime, urban insecurity and victimization, the concepts of risk and panic are naturally connected. The realm of political morality, however, is just about distinctive enough for the BSE ( mad cow disease ) or foot and mouth disease panics not to be moral panics. Only if risk analysis becomes perceived as primarily moral rather... 

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