[GTALUG] Free Linux VMs

[Howard Gibson]

On Sun, 10 May 2020 19:48:14 -0400
Alvin Starr <alvin at netvel.net> wrote:
> > Alvin,
> >
> >     I am fascinated by this incident...
> >
> >     http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/21/ncix_servers_sold/
> >
> This is not a new story.
> 
> A lot of years ago I worked for a company that wanted to develop a Unix 
> workstation for CAD/CAM applications but they ran out of cash.
> Some Dentist bought the hardware at the fire sale and got a source copy 
> of AT&T Unix.
> He then tried to extort cash out of AT&T  with the threat of releasing 
> the source code.
> Well needless to say it did not go well for him.
> 
> Many years later I bought a tape backup system on Ebay.
> It came with about 10 tapes that had the complete MSSQL for an HMO in 
> California.
> Including patient data and billing information.
> 
> The NCIX one is not surprising because the bankruptcy lawyers have no 
> idea of what they have and don't have any responsibility to guard public 
> privacy.

Alvin,

   I recall hearing on the news about some guy who bought an old computer with the UNIX source code on it.  That must have been the incident. 

   I posted that story about NCIX on an engineering forum, and we discussed the ethics of it.  To hell with lawyers.  You are the landlord, and you have not been paid rent, and you have padlocked the place.  Somebody offers you $10K for the servers.  You are a low tech person.  You have a mortgage.  What do you do?  Do you have any obligations to honour NDAs?  Do you have any clue of how to search hard drives for sensitive information?  Is it ethical for you to do so?

-- 
Howard Gibson 
hgibson at eol.ca
jhowardgibson at gmail.com
http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson