Appendix A. Background Materials

A.1 RISKS References

In this book, the references to issues of the ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes are given in the form SEN i, j, where i is the volume number and j is the issue within the volume. The year and date of each issue can be obtained from the following table.

The occasional references to the on-line Risks Forum generally do not include the dates of each issue. For reference purpose, the ranges of issues and dates for each volume are as follows.

A.2 On-Line Sources

There are no guarantees of continuity or longevity in the Internet. People come and go. Addresses change incessantly. As of the time that this book went to press, the following information was valid.

A.2.1 The Risks Forum

The on-line Risks Forum (RISKS) is a moderated, digested, E-mail forum for discussion of risks related to the use of computer systems, including many security, safety, and reliability problems; comp.risks is its Usenet counterpart. It is distributed in digest form, but undigestifiers are available from news wizards. Send administrative requests (for subscriptions, back issues, and so on) to [email protected] and send contributions to [email protected] for consideration. Archives dating back to August 1985 are available by anonymous file transfer (FTP) from ftp.sri.com (for which the IP address is [128.18.30.66]), typing cd /pub/risks to get into the main archive directory. Each volume other than the most recent is located in its own subdirectory—1, 2, and so on. A searchable archive site is maintained by Lindsay Marshall at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/.

Highlights from the on-line Risks Forum appear in quarterly issues of the ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, available from the Association for Computing Machinery, 1515 Broadway, New York, NY 10036. The monthly Inside Risks column appears in each issue of the Communications of the ACM, just inside the back cover.

A.2.2 PRIVACY Digests

There are currently two useful digests related to privacy.

• The PRIVACY Forum Digest (PFD) is run by Lauren Weinstein. He manages it as a selectively moderated digest, somewhat akin to RISKS; it spans the full range of both technological and nontechnological privacy-related issues (with an emphasis on the former). For information regarding the PRIVACY Forum Digest, please send E-mail to [email protected] with information privacy on one and only one line of message text.

• The Computer PRIVACY Digest (CPD) (formerly the Telecom Privacy Digest) is run by Leonard P. Levine, who succeeded Dennis G. Rears. It is gatewayed to the USENET newsgroup comp.society.privacy. It is a relatively open (that is, not tightly moderated) forum, and was established to provide a forum for discussion on the effect of technology on privacy. Send E-mail to [email protected] for administrative requests.

A.2.3 The VIRUS-L Digest

The VIRUS-L Digest is a moderated, digested E-mail forum for discussing computer virus issues; comp.virus is its Usenet counterpart. Information on accessing anti-virus, documentation, and back issue archives is distributed periodically on the list. A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document and pointers to all of the back issues are available at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-virus/faq, along with instructions for subscribing and contributing.

A.3 General Bibliography Items

You might wish to study some of the following references, which provide general background.

• Ulrich Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity [8].

• Nathaniel S. Borenstein, Programming As If People Mattered: Friendly Programs, Software Engineering, and Other Noble Delusions [15].

• Steven M. Casey, Set Phasers on Stun, and Other True Tales of Design Technology and Human Error [21].

• John Gall, Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail [46].

• Nancy Leveson, Safeware: System Safety and the Computer Age [81].

• Jerry Mander, In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology & the Survival of the Indian Nations [88].

• Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith, Collision Course: The Truth about Airline Safety [99].

• Ivars Peterson, Fatal Defect: Why Computers Fail [127].

• Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents [126].

• Henry Petroski, To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design [129].

• Henry Petroski, Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering [130].

• Steve Talbott, The Future Does Not Compute [165].

• Lauren Wiener, Computer Woes: Why We Should Not Depend on Software [177].

• National Research Council, Computers at Risk: Safe Computing in the Information Age [26].