WTF Happened to AIM

Security vs. Usability.

Aim has buddy icons, a profile, away messages, and an easy install. Everyone uses it and everyone is familiar with it. "What's your screen name?" only means one client right now. If we encourage an IM revolution, people would be afraid of having 6 clients for each protocol trying to duke it out.

I can see it now:

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"I think you should use silc."
"Can I keep my buddy icon?"
"No, but your messages can't be intercepted and your client is less likely to be exploited"
"But my buddy icon says Diva on it... :("

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Originally posted here by guardian alpha
Because this is a security forum, not a hardware forum :) And thus when we generally address issues we are looking at it from a security perspective, and thus will refer to security perspectives. We all know hardware outages happen, that's obvious. But we are also not in a hardware failure-based forum.

Like a baseball club talking about baseball, when we mention examples in baseball it is obviously because we are a baseball club. Even if blackeyes can happen mostly from self accidents and fights, the blackeyes we are referring to happen from a stray ball.

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I'm sorry, but that is about the dumbest reply I've read. Security also has to do with maintaining availability of your systems and data. When a system goes down one of the first things you should check is if it was a known outage (planned downtime or maintenance) or if it was possible hardware failure.

Once again, for the thicker skulled, we are all aware of security procedures and CERT protocols.

But it remains that there is a difference between AIM insecurity protocols and a NIC card failing. In fact, we talk about the first one and the latter isn't mentioned anywhere in this thread. If we were talking about hardware related events (AIM insecurity related to packet filtering has NOTHING to do with hardare failure) then I would welcome your comment. Otherwise right now it just seems like you've had a bad day and want to take it out on someone :) Sorry, wrong forum for that.

I haven't had a bad day. I'm pointing out a flaw in your (not you specifically...the thread as a whole) troubleshooting procedures and theories. The more common and plausible explanation is maintenance, hardware failure, etc. Not all service outages are hacking.

The thread (before it got threadjacked) was about a disruption in aim service. That is where my post fits in.

And by no means is everyone here aware of security procedures and cert protocols.

Ah, I get what you mean now :) Thought you were trying to combat the idea that AIM exploits and fishing scams were hardware related. However now that I get your point, I will agree with you. Actual server/workstation failures are usually going to be hardware failures/spyware overflow rather than a common-day hack.

A lot of people think hacks are often the primary cause of server failure, but are rare amoung the cause of real server errors. Maybe we can continue this fork of the discussion in another thread or PM, so we don't derail the origonal conversation any further than I've done lol

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disruption in aim service.

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We were referring to the literal security within AIM, not aim server disruption. Moreso the client-side of how and why the AIM protocol is insecure rather than why the AIM server may be down.

Yeah, I saw what it turned into. Next time I'll add a reference to the specific posts (in this case the first one) in the thread that I am replying to. That should cut down on the confusion.

Oh great................the mighty Juridian has pontificated...................understand his words you mighty and despair..............

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I'm sorry, but that is about the dumbest reply I've read. Security also has to do with maintaining availability of your systems and data. When a system goes down one of the first things you should check is if it was a known outage (planned downtime or maintenance) or if it was possible hardware failure.

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Your opinion of others' intelligences are probably irrelevant to most members...............certainly to the cognoscenti...............

So where is CHSH now that I have challenged?..............and who gave you all those points?............I guess there are one or two alliances that have not been weeded out?

:mad:

What have you actually achieved in your life so far?

I gave them to him. He, like Catch, get negged because people don't like his attitude. Just like I do.

Hey Gore...................are Catch, Chsh and Juridian the same people? or just at the same college or what?

Na, Catch isn't at a college, Chsh is in Canada, and Juridian is .... I don't know never asked him. But all of them get reamed for attitudes even though they are one of the first people asked when something happens and someone needs help.

I've been in huge arguements with all 3 so it's not a favoritism thing, but I know exactly what the whole negged for your opinion / attitude thing feels like, I get it all the time. Chsh and J both have a sense of humor, but people miss it because they think they are being arrogant or something. Try reading what they say differently. You'll find humor.

-Loving BOFH.