[SIGCIS-Members] FW: computer security history

Pierre Mounier mounier at msh-paris.fr
Wed Mar 14 06:23:24 PDT 2012


Ah…
This may be true for "historians" (and we know quite a few). Not for  
historians, who use and cross-examine multiple sources, in addition to  
hardbound books: Dustbound archives, staplebound journals, spiderbound  
vintage computers, interviews with pioneers of the field. And even  
websites.

Best,
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn



Le 14 mars 12 à 13:53, <SIGCOS at bobf.frankston.com> a écrit :

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Van Vleck [mailto:thvv at multicians.org]
> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 12:38
> To: Bob Frankston
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] computer security history
>
> The history of computer security has been extensively studied.
> have them start with
>   http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/history/
>
> Many "historians" are only interested in information that is in
> hardbound books, preferably written by other "historians."
> Most of these books pick some story, and then pick facts that
> support the story.
>
> z/OS is a descendant of CP/CMS.  Googling suggests z/OS probably has
> been hacked, just not in the world view of guys from Compuware.
>
> The phrase "digital pearl harbor" belongs to the History of Hype
> which is also worth studying, but is only tangentially related
> to computer security.
>
>
> On Mar 11, 2012, at 10:40 PM, Bob Frankston wrote:
>
>> Multics again ... perhaps I should also forward this to Jerry Saltzer
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members- 
>> bounces at sigcis.org] On
>> Behalf Of William McMillan
>> Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2012 18:04
>> To: members at sigcis.org
>> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] computer security history
>>
>> Jon, et al.
>>
>> There might be some value in looking into the history of Multics, the
>> IBM System/360, and DEC VAX/VMS.  These were systems built from the
>> ground up with security in mind, even at the hardware level for
>> address-space protection.
>>
>> I'm sure there are other good cases, but these come to mind.
>>
>> I believe that Peter J. Denning's work on operating systems would  
>> also
>> be related.
>>
>> We had a mainframe guy from Compuware come in recently to talk to
>> students about current mainframes, which amount almost totally to the
>> IBM z Systems, descendants of the 360/370.  When someone asked about
>> security, he said forget about it. No one's ever hacked a z System.
>>
>> There's this whole, heavy-duty, bullet-proof world of hyper-secure
>> systems, and then the swamps and tangles most of us live in that
>> evolved from Unix, MS-DOS, the 8086, the Mac OS and other jury-rigged
>> OSs and hardware architectures.
>>
>> - Bill
>>
>> On 3/11/12, Jon Lindsay <jrlindsay at ucsd.edu> wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>> I have the feeling that the history of computer security, from  
>>> hacking
>>> techniques to the evolution of the information security industry to
>>> fearmongering over cybersecurity, is a somewhat understudied area.  
>>> I have
>>> seen some work on the development of government policy and threat  
>>> framing
>>> (i.e., by Myriam Dunn Cavelty) but I'm less aware of anything on the
>>> evolution of the technical and industrial dark arts. If there is  
>>> some
> good
>>> work out there, I would love to see it.
>>> Bonus points if you can tell me when the awful phrase "digital pearl
>>> harbor" first appeared!
>>> Cheers,
>>> Jon
>>>
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