The RISKS Digest
Volume 1 Index

Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems

ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator

Volume 1 Issue 01 (1 August 1985)

• Welcome! (PGN)
• ACM Council Resolution of 8 October 1984 (PGN)
• An Agenda for the Future (PGN)
• Computer-Related Incidents Illustrating Risks to the Public (PGN)
• Strategic Computing Initiative (PGN)
• Strategic Defense Initiative; David Parnas and SDI (PGN, Ed Frankenberry, David Weiss)
• Herb Lin: Software for Ballistic Missile Defense, June 1985 (Herb Lin)
• Weapons and Hope by Freeman Dyson (minireview by Peter Denning) (Peter Denning)
• Christiane Floyd et al.: The Responsible Use of Computers (Jim Horning)
• Human safety (software safety) (PGN)
• Computers in critical environments, Rome, 23-25 October 1985 (PGN)
• Afterword (PGN)

Volume 1 Issue 02 (Friday, 28 Aug 1985)

• Introduction; three more risk items (Peter Neumann)
• Mariner 1 Irony (Nicholas Spies)
• RISKS Forum … [Reaction] (Bob Carter)
• RISKS Forum … [An Air Traffic Control Problem] (Scott Rose)
• Risks in AI Diagnostic Aids (Art Smith)
• Warning! … [A Trojan Horse Bites Man] (Don Malpass)
• SDI (Martin Moore, Jim Horning, John McCarthy, John McCarthy, Peter Karp, John McCarthy, Dave Parnas, Gary Martins, Tom Parmenter)
• The Madison Paper on Computer Unreliability and Nuclear War (Jeff Myers)
• Can a Computer Declare War? (Cliff Johnson)

Volume 1 Issue 03 (Friday, 30 Aug 1985)

• Miscellaneous comments on V1#2 (Dave Curry)
• Computer/hardship list (Jerome Rosenberg)
• Medical KBES — Some AI systems may need FDA approval ()
• Health hazards of CRT use (Robin Cooper)

Volume 1 Issue 04 (Monday, 2 Sept 1985)

• The Case of the Broken Buoy (Matt Bishop)
• Inaction; Buoys will be buoys; KAL 007; Malpractice (PGN)
• Health Hazards of CRT Use (Brint Cooper, Robin Cooper, PGN)
• Medical Software (Brint Cooper)
• Rolm's Hawk-32 (Doug Bryan)

Volume 1 Issue 05 (Wednesday, 4 Sep 1985)

• The Strategic Defense Initiative (Joseph Weizenbaum)
• 1.5 million Ford engines need recall? (Hal Murray)
• Risks in CAD, etc. (Eugene Miya)
• crt & non-crt risks (Mike McLaughlin)
• Computerworld… on Union Carbide and NJ false arrests (Charlie Spitzer)
• More on false arrests (PGN)

Volume 1 Issue 06 (Friday, 6 Sep 1985)

• Joseph Weizenbaum's comments (Dave Parnas)
• Good Risks and Bad Risks (Dave Brandin, PGN)
• Hot rodding your AT (Dan Bower)
• Hazards of VDTs and CRTs (Al Friend)
• crt & non-crt risks (Brint Cooper)
• The Case of the Broken Buoy (Herb Lin, Matt Bishop)

Volume 1 Issue 07 (Sunday, 8 Sep 1985)

• The risks of not using some technology (John McCarthy)
• More on SDI (Joseph Weizenbaum)
• SDI reliability (Martin Moore)
• Re: Hazards of VDTs and CRTs (Bernie Elspas)
• Viruses, Trojan horses, and worms (Fred Hapgood, PGN)
• Re: The Case of the Broken Buoy (Herb Lin, Matt Bishop)
• Re: Hot rodding you AT (Keith F. Lynch)

Volume 1 Issue 08 (Sunday, 8 Sep 1985)

• Risks of omission (Nancy Leveson, Nicholas Spies, Herb Lin, Dave Parnas)
• Hot rodding you AT and the weather (John McCarthy)
• Re: Good Risks and Bad Risks (Brint Cooper)
• SDI reliability (Herb Lin)
• Viruses, Trojan horses, and worms (Herb Lin, PGN, Herb Lin, PGN)

Volume 1 Issue 09 (Monday, 9 Sep 1985)

• McCarthy, Weizenbaum on SDI (Douglas Schuler)
• Why I'm against even a reliable SDI (Jeffrey Mogul)
• Risk Assessment and Risk Management (Edward V. Berard)
• Risks in displaying a file containing control characters (Keith F. Lynch)

Volume 1 Issue 10 (Thursday, 12 Sep 1985)

• Weizenbaum, etc.; even if SDI worked…. (John Shore)
• SDI (John McCarthy)
• More on SDI reliability (Martin Moore)

Volume 1 Issue 11 (Friday, 13 Sep 1985)

• SDI and John McCarthy (Charlie Crummer)
• SDI and Safeguard (John Mashey)
• SDI and Robert Jastrow (Herb Lin)
• Some financial disaster cases from Software Engineering Notes (three contributions totalling five reports)

Volume 1 Issue 12 (Friday, 13 Sep 1985)

• Wire-Transfer Risks; Risk of Non-application of Technology (Jerry Saltzer)
• Date-Time stamps (and errors therein) (Ted M P Lee)
• JMC's remarks (Joseph Weizenbaum)
• Subjective Factors in Risk Assessment (Lynne C. Moore)
• Moral vs. Technological Progress (Charlie Crummer)

Volume 1 Issue 13 (Saturday, 14 Sep 1985)

• Risks in RISKS (Peter G. Neumann)
• Preserving rights to Email messages (Larry Hunter)
• Risk Comparisons (T. Tussing)
• Risks history/philosophy (Nicholas Spies)

Volume 1 Issue 14 (Monday, 16 Sep 1985)

• Pitfalls of a Fail-Safe Mail Protocol? (Peter G. Neumann)
• Some Ruminations on an Ideal Defense System (Bob Estell)
• SDI, feasibility is irrelevant (Gopal)

Volume 1 Issue 15 (Friday, 20 Sep 1985)

• SDI Panel at 8th ICSE in London (David Weiss) Risks to the Moderator (PGN) Mailer Protocol Woes (Marty Moore) Another Horror Story — Sidereal Time Rollover (Marty Moore) Article: Health Hazards of Computers (Ted Shapin) Two More SDI Related Queries (douglas schuler) CAL ID — computerized fingerprint system (douglas schuler)

Volume 1 Issue 16 (Thursday, 26 Sep 1985)

• Intellectual honesty and the SDI (Bill Anderson)
• RISKy Stuff (Mike Padlipsky)
• Mailer Protocol Woes (Rob Austein)
• Risks in Synchronizing Network Clocks (Ann Westine for Jon Postel)
• Re: Moral vs. Technological Progress (Joel Upchurch)
• Risk Contingency Planning — Computers in Mexico (Mike McLaughlin)

Volume 1 Issue 17 (Friday, 27 Sep 1985)

• SDI debate announcement ()
• Minor risk to the pocket book (Eugene Miya)
• Social Impacts of Computing: Graduate Study at UC-Irvine (Rob Kling)
• Friendly enemy test teams (John Mashey)
• More protocol goofs (Dave Curry)

Volume 1 Issue 18 (Friday, 4 Oct 1985)

• Lack of a backup computer closes stock exchange (Marty Moore)
• DPMA survey on computer crime offenses (J.A.N. Lee)
• Ethics vs. morality (Marty Cohen)
• The Mythical Man-Month of Risk (Stavros Macrakis)
• Risk Assessment by real people (Mike McLaughlin)
• CRTs again, solution to one eye-problem (Mike McLaughlin)
• Failure of Mexican Networks (Dave Flory)
• Technical Reports Lists (Laurence Leff)

Volume 1 Issue 19 (Monday, 7 Oct 1985)

• Emanations and interference in the civil sector (Peter Neumann, Jerry Saltzer)
• Administrivia — Escaped Mail and Delays (Mark S. Day)
• Computer databases (Andy Mondore)
• Re: Friendly test teams (John Mashey)
• Re: CRTs again, solution to one eye-problem (Brint Cooper)

Volume 1 Issue 20 (Wednesday, 9 Oct 1985)

• Risks using robots in industry (Bill Keefe)
• Re: Computer databases (Matt Bishop)
• Registrar's databases; Database risks - census data (Hal Murray, 2 messages)
• The winners of evolution… (William McKeeman)

Volume 1 Issue 21 (Thursday, 10 Oct 1985)

• Public Accountability (Jim Horning, Peter Neumann)
• The Titanic Effect (JAN Lee)
• Databases, Grades, etc. (Brian Borchers, Andy Mondore, Mark Day [twice], Alan Wexelblat, Ross McKenrick, Randy Parker)

Volume 1 Issue 22 (Wednesday, 16 Oct 1985)

• Administratrivia (Friedrich von Henke)
• Medical software incidents (Nancy Leveson)
• European activities (Udo Voges)
• Robots are different (Jerry Saltzer)
• Automobile computer control systems (Bennett Smith)
• Police computers (Dave Dyer)
• Electronic Surveillance (Geoffrey S. Goodfellow / Bill Keefe)
• Network Mailer Woes (Lynne Moore)
• Databases, grades, etc. (Karl Kluge, Andy Mondore, Mark Sienkiew)

Volume 1 Issue 23 (Tuesday, 19 Nov 1985)

• Expecting the unexpected (Peter G. Neumann)
• Safety Group Activities in the U.S. (Nancy Leveson)
• Automobile computer control systems susceptible to interference (Bennett Smith)
• Irresponsible computer “game”; BBS Legislation (Ted Shapin)
• SDI Debate at MIT (John L. Mills)

Volume 1 Issue 24 (Wednesday, 20 Nov 1985)

• Doing Something About Risks in Computer Systems (Brad Davis)
• Space Program Software (Jerome Rosenberg)
• Susceptibility to interference (John Brewer)
• Expecting the unexpected (Herb Lin)
• Philip W. Anderson's “Case Against Star Wars” (Pete Kaiser)

Volume 1 Issue 25 (Sunday, 1 Nov 1985)

• Some Thoughts on Unpredicted Long-Term Risks (Peter G. Neumann)
• Computer snafu halts treasury (Peter G. Trei)
• “Hacker” Game (Ken Brown; Keith F. Lynch, Werner Uhrig)

Volume 1 Issue 26 (Wednesday, 4 Dec 1985)

• Humility (Matt Bishop)
• Reliable Computer Systems (Jim Horning)
• Electromagnetic Interference (Peter G. Neumann)
• Hackers (Thomas Cox)
• “The Hacker Game”: Is it simulating security of REAL machines? (Ted Shapin)
• Unexpected load on telephone trunks (Ted Shapin)

Volume 1 Issue 27 (Saturday, 7 Dec 1985)

• Summary of Groundrules: ()
• The RISKS Forum is a moderated digest. To be distributed, submissions should ()
• be relevant to the topic, technically sound, objective, in good taste, and ()
• coherent. Others will be rejected. Diversity of viewpoints is welcome. ()
• Please try to avoid repetition of earlier discussions. ()

Volume 1 Issue 28 (Sunday, 8 Dec 1985)

• Viruses and Worms (Mark S. Day, Aaron M. Ellison, Ted Lee, Dave Parnas)
• Electromagnetic Interference (Chuq Von Rospach)
• Crackers (Peter Reiher, Matt Bishop, Dave Dyer)

Volume 1 Issue 29 (Thursday, 12 Dec 1985)

• Computer-compared prescriptions (Dave Platt)
• SDI: Danny Cohen and Eastport Group comments (Gary Chapman via Jim Horning)
• Worms, etc. (Keith F. Lynch, Stavros Macrakis)
• Passwords, etc. (King Ables, Dave Curry, Dan Bower)

Volume 1 Issue 30 (Monday, 16 Dec 1985)

• Request for Cases, Settled or Decided (George S. Cole)
• Risks of job displacement from computerization (Fred Hapgood)
• Risks re computer-compared prescriptions (Richard Lamson)
• Legal bootlegs [a case against worms] (K.Richard Magill)
• Passwords (ircam)
• Verifying source code vs. executable code (Martin J. Moore)
• Seminar - SDI Debate (SU) (Joan Feigenbaum)

Volume 1 Issue 31 (Thursday, 19 Dec 1985)

• Enough on passwords? Pharmacy systems (Elizabeth Willey)
• Risks re computer-compared prescriptions (Brint Cooper)
• Oops (Marty Moore)
• $32 Billion Overdraft Resulted From Snafu (Washington Post)

Volume 1 Issue 32 (Monday, 23 Dec 1985)

• Can Bank of New York Bank on Star Wars? (Jim Horning)
• Cohen's AT&T SDI Software Analogy (Richard A. Cowan)
• Failure probabilities in decision chains (Will Martin)
• Ten-year any-worseries (Dan Hoey)
• Multiple digests as a result of crashed systems (Rob Austein)

Volume 1 Issue 33 (Wednesday, 1 Jan 1986)

• Star Wars and Bank of NY (Brint Cooper, Chris Hibbert, Jim Horning)
• Lipton and SDI (Herb Lin)
• The robot sentry (Martin Minow)
• Murphy is watching YOU (Rob Austein)
• Re: Failure probabilities in decision chains (Stephen Wolff)

Volume 1 Issue 34 (Saturday, 4 Jan 1986)

• C&P Computer Problems Foul 44,000 D.C. Phones (Mike McLaughlin)
• Putting the Man in the Loop (Jim McGrath)
• Testing SDI (Jim McGrath)
• Independent Battlestations (Jim McGrath)
• Failure probablities in decision chains… independence (Edward Vielmetti)
• Pharmacy prescription systems (Normand Lepine)
• Masquerading (Paul W. Nelson)

Volume 1 Issue 35 (Monday, 5 Jan 1986)

• SDI - Meteors as substitutes for nuclear war (Jim Horning, Dave Parnas)
• SDI - Putting a Man in the Loop (Jim McGrath, Herb Lin, JM again)
• SDI - Testing SDI (Herb Lin, Jim McGrath, HL again)
• SDI - Independent Battlestations (Herb Lin, Jim McGrath, HL again)
• SDI - The Goal of SDI; Politicians (Jim McGrath)
• Pharmacy prescription systems (Rodney Hoffman)
• How to steal people's passwords (Roy Smith)

Volume 1 Issue 36 (Tuesday, 7 Jan 1986)

• PLEASE READ Weapons and Hope by Freeman Dyson. (Peter Denning)
• Wolves in the woods (Jim Horning, Dave Parnas)
• “Certifiable reliability” and the purpose of SDI (Michael L. Scott)
• Putting a man in the loop (Michael L. Scott)
• SDI Testing (Jim McGrath, Jim McGrath, Jim Horning)
• Dec. 85 IEEE TSE: Special Issue on Software Reliability—Part I (Jim Horning)
• Masquerading (R. Michael Tague)

Volume 1 Issue 37 (Thursday, 9 Jan 1986)

• IEEE TSE Special Issue on Reliability — Part 1 (Nancy Leveson)
• SDI Testing (Nancy Leveson, Dave Parnas)
• Multiple redundancy (Henry Spencer)
• On Freeman Dyson (Gary Chapman, Jon Jacky)

Volume 1 Issue 38 (Friday, 10 Jan 1986)

• Ad-hominem SDI discussion (Mike McLaughlin [and Peter Neumann])
• Men in the loop (Martin J. Moore)
• Failure probabilities in decision chains (Jim Miller)
• Testing SDI (Karl Kluge, Robert Goldman)
• Summing Up on SDI (Jim McGrath)

Volume 1 Issue 39 (Monday, 13 Jan 1986)

• Real-time responsibility (Dave Wade)
• Big Brother (Jim McGrath, Peter Neumann)
• Men in the SDI loop (Herb Lin)

Volume 1 Issue 40 (Friday, 17 Jan 1986)

• Big Brother (Jim Ziobro, Keith Lynch)
• Multiple redundancy (Henry Spencer)
• COMPASS 86: System Integrity: Process Security and Safety (Al Friend)

Volume 1 Issue 41 (Sunday, 19 Jan 1986)

• On a Clear Day You Can See Forever … or Nothing At All (Peter G. Neumann)
• Unreleased SDIO Computing Panel Report: Specialists Fault ‘Star Wars’ Work ()
• Man in the loop and magnetic bottles (Jon Jacky)

Volume 1 Issue 42 (Tuesday, 28 Jan 1986)

• The Space Shuttle Challenger (Peter G. Neumann)
• When you start an engine at 40 below, you could be injured… (David Wade)
• “Brazil” and Risks to the Public (Martin Minow)

Volume 1 Issue 43 (Wednesday, 29 Jan 1986)

• Reliability of Shuttle Destruct System (Martin J. Moore) (LONG MESSAGE)
• Challenger lost (and note on self-destruct mechanism) (Earle S. Kyle jr.)
• Challenger ICING !!! (Werner Uhrig)
• Big Brother, again (Col. G. L. Sicherman)

Volume 1 Issue 44 (Wednesday, 29 Jan 1986)

• Shuttle SRB/MFT self-destruct mechanisms (Dusty Bleher, Herb Lin, Martin Moore)
• Challenger speculation (Herb Lin)

Volume 1 Issue 45 (Friday, 31 Jan 1986)

• Risks from discussing Reliability of Shuttle Destruct System (John Carpenter, Peter G. Neumann)
• Possible triggering of the self-destruct mechanism (Peter G. Neumann)
• Challenger and Living with High-Risk Technologies (Dave Benson)
• The Challenger [non]accident (Jeff Siegal)
• Shuttle Explosion — Plutonium on Galileo (Larry Shilkoff)
• Reliability in redundant systems (Brad Davis)

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