No security reprieve from Blizzard's Warden

Simply denying that they look at data if it does not relate to the game is not good enough -- game companies have already caused data from other programs on a system to be gathered and transmitted in clear text over the Internet. Were Blizzard to find itself holding inadvertently gathered sensitive data from a Nasdaq or Defense Department systems administrator's desktop, I doubt the "We didn't look at it" argument would get very far.

The end

In the end, we choose these problems. If I want to give up my home system privacy for an online hit that keeps me going for a few hours at a time, it's my choice, and it's my responsibility to know the consequences. If I'm sensible when faced with ugly licensing terms for interactive games or media, I'll choose not to install, play, watch or listen. If I'm informed, I'll know what remote self-help is and shun it for my own good as well as that of others.

But I don't usually have the right as an individual to choose these risks for an organization with other people and data that's not my own property. Organizations should promote this understanding through better security training and awareness -- even if most may settle for just an admonishment not to install unauthorized software.

At risk of promoting dubious Internet addiction-treatment scams, it might be a good idea to provide counseling to those who just can't help themselves and would otherwise put themselves and others in positions of risk. As a man familiar with creating serious problems for those around him once said, we're all our own prisons, we are each all our own wardens, and we do our own time.

Jon Espenschied has been at play in the security industry for enough years to become enthusiastic, blasé, cynical, jaded, content and enthusiastic again. He is currently a senior security consultant in Seattle, where his advice has been ignored by CEOs, auditors and sysadmins alike.

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