Fixing C's Biggest Mistake

[Don Allen]

On Wednesday, 11 January 2023 at 04:03:02 UTC, Walter Bright 
wrote:
> On 1/10/2023 7:39 PM, Don Allen wrote:
>> I'm not looking for zero risk, which is impossible. I'm 
>> looking for the most reasonable operating point. Again, 
>> cost/risk vs. benefit.
>
> I don't know your situation, but losing all my passwords would 
> be a disaster for me. I've had my checking account compromised, 
> credit cards compromised several times. Multiply that by a 
> hundred.
>
> I've seen sob stories on HackerNews were some victim had has 
> Mac compromised, and the hacker then took over all his 
> accounts, changed the passwords, and started impersonating the 
> victim.

I think it's a pretty safe bet that the "victim" did something 
dumb. If you use your wife's maiden name as the password of your 
Google account, don't enable 2FA, and your account gets hacked, 
are you a victim? I don't think so. Information for how to 
protect yourself online is everywhere. People ignore it, just as 
they ignore warnings about smoking.

>
> Apple won't fix it for you, Google won't fix it for you, Amazon 
> won't fix it for you.
>
> You're borked.
>
> No thanks.

Well, you and I just have a different set of weighting factors.

Do you carry a cellphone? There are risks, as I'm sure you well 
know. I have friends at MIT who won't use them who, I'm quite 
sure, would agree with you about password managers. Use credit 
cards? See what Richard Stallman has to say about that. Write 
checks? Risks.

I think this is just like getting on an airplane or driving a 
car. Most of us accept the risks in return for the benefits. But 
not all.