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A big thank you to Matt Deatherage for pointing out the rather obvious dumb in Dave Winer's...well, whining about OMG, Apple took my Hard Drive!

My favorite part is here:

No, wait. This is stupid. This is not a security issue because Apple keeps dead drives for remanufacturing, both on paid replacements and under warranty. This is Dave's "security issue" because Dave didn't expect to have to surrender the old drive while paying for the new drive.

But the last two paragraphs really tie it up neatly:

But "huge security problem" because Dave let people he doesn't know see his unsecured data? No. It's your responsibility not to hand your unsecured data to people you don't know, and I can't possibly get worked up in the slightest over the idea that if you do hand your data to someone you don't know, then it's no longer in your control. That's the entire definition of "handing over unsecured data."

The "problem" isn't that Apple kept his hard drive. The problem is that Dave handed his sensitive data to a third-party in the first place. You don't leave your router open out of an "expectation" that bad guys won't touch your network, and you don't hand your hard drive to third parties with the expectation that they'll decide not to look at it. This is not rocket science.

Remember people, at some point, you have to engage your damned brain and think on a level that's a bit more complex than that of a friggin' squab.

Technorati Tags:
Dave Winer: Living Up To His Name, Apple, Stupidity != Security Hole

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