Adele’s Aerie

I found myself in a strange situation a couple weeks ago, of needing to define the term “sysadmin” for a new friend who is not computer-inclined. I’ve surrounded myself too much over the past few years with people who exclusively live, eat and breathe IT buzzword and acronym bingo, a situation I intend to bring to a close as quickly as is convenient.

Here’s how I explained what I do for a living to an interested, intelligent, non-computer-inclined person:

You were curious about my work…
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Yesterday I spent a lot of time researching Bugbear, and trying to get in touch with an old mentor of mine whose computer was infected and sent me two infected emails containing personal email originally sent to him, all without his knowledge. I’ve also spent some time lately helping various family members better secure their home computers.

Computer security is no longer optional for anyone who owns a computer connected to the internet. Even if your computer has absolutely nothing of interest stored on it, hackers will try to get to it so they can use it to attack other computers to cover their trails. Computer viruses and worms attack without forethought, automatically spreading and squirming around into places they’re least expected, much like their biological counterparts. Yes, I know this is a long entry. Read it anyway! I promise to use mostly understandable English!
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These are notes from my informal talk and resulting discussion from the Birds of a Feather (BoF) session from the USENIX LISA Conference in 2000. Special thanks to Jessica Cole for typing notes during the BoF, and to Mike C for inspiration!

0) Overview of the Presentation

1. Background/Problem
2. Goals
3. Baby Steps
4. Brain Pages
5. Encourage to Write
6. Encourage to Use
7. Next Steps
8. More Ideas?

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