[SCADASEC] Apology on behalf of SCADASEC-L

Sun Feb 17 21:16:10 CST 2008

Hello all (please read entire note)

For those of you wondering where my post is (as a moderator) in all of this, here it is. I have been slow in the response due to the fact I have been offline all day with a family issue and have just now caught up and read all the activity. After collecting myself I am in a position to post.

First, to Johnathan, I am sorry. There is nobody in the community that is less deserving of this type of slander nor the propagation of such material by any media. Your commitment to the field and your extensive compassion, patience, and tireless contributions are well documented. Moreover, your perpetual reservation to cast judgment on people in a society that seems to thrive on it continuously proves your character. I am sure I am not alone in agreeing with Marty in that we ignore such items when it is directed at a peer...especially you. No doubt the malicious chatter is by someone eager to get to your level of respect in the community and may perhaps be devoid of any real talent themselves. 

The awkward events of today and the reposting of the (obviously fabricated) chatter really was a perfect storm of a variety of things . At the end of the day, some good folks were trying to protect those affiliated with the community and it just came out wrong. I blinked when I promised I wouldn't, and the auto-post just got the stuff out. 

As a moderator. I work with Bob on as close to real time as I can watching the postings. Sadly, there has been a surge in personal attacks on many folks...and  we have been working hard to stop from making the list. I have no idea what is happening with this surge, but JP is not alone as a target, and the posting by Leif was simply to draw attention to the issue at hand. It is true, those that have the greatest respect and contribution seem to get the largest amount of crap tossed their way. Johnathan gets a lot because he is a respected leader. 

As a moderator I make no excuses for what happened, as we all know the way in which we post  can easily be misconstrued. I firmly believe that Leifs post was not intended to cause harm, and I firmly be live that anyone wishing to hurt Johnathan has some motivation that is well beyond the scope of this list.. I deeply wish that this had not happened the way it did, but such events do happen at least once in a lists lifetime ( especially in the early stages).. It would be easier for me if I did not know Johnathan personally, but as I do the situation makes me very uncomfortable and a little sick to my stomach. Sorry does not cut it.

I will be having a conversation with Bob this evening as to what we need to do to make sure this does not happen again. I need you all to know that I am not only concerned with the disclosure stuff but how it got here in this list.  I am not angry at Leif in any way but angry at the process that permitted this thread to take flight. I  have a list of suggestions but as Bob  is the owner I will leave it to him to decide and update you all. 

The material regarding Johnathan is irrelevant, as those of us that do  know him just glance over any content that has ill intent. We saw some postings on Wired that were clearly not his, on DB that were not his, and we have all been victim of such attacks in the past. I take great comfort in knowing this community is too clever and too respectful to let such slander take root. 

Onward we go.

Respectfully yours, 

Mark

Mark Fabro CISSP, CISM
President and CEO
Lofty Perch, Inc.
fabro at loftyperch.com
(647)226-4225 direct

----- Original Message -----
From: scadasec-bounces at news.infracritical.com <scadasec-bounces at news.infracritical.com>
To: scadasec <scadasec at news.infracritical.com>
Sent: Sun Feb 17 19:37:29 2008
Subject: Re: [SCADASEC] Apology on behalf of SCADASEC-L

Well said Bob.  Those of us that know Jonathan have been ignoring the whole issue.

Marty W Edwards
Critical Infrastructure Protection
National and Homeland Security
Idaho National Laboratory
Marty.Edwards at inl.gov
(T) 208.526.9372
(C) 208.569.1651

[Sent from my Blackberry]

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Radvanovsky [rsradvan at unixworks.net]
Sent: 02/17/2008 06:30 PM CST
To: scadasec at news.infracritical.com
Subject: [SCADASEC] Apology on behalf of SCADASEC-L

Folks --

It has come to my attention that Leif Ericksen re-posted an article earlier regarding one of our industry members this evening, and was intended to be 'purely informational' and nothing more.

Similar to Leif, I too, received an email from the full-disclosure mailing list earlier today regarding said issue.  The afternoon has been abuzz with discussions regarding this matter.  Nonetheless, without any factual basis or web site URLs to substantiate this rumor as 'truth', this is nothing shy of a rumor mill initiated in an effort to possibly discredit Jonathan Pollet.  After speaking with Leif on this matter, his point was to identify that someone was posting rumors regarding this industry subject matter expert.  The fact remains that someone has taken an initiative to provide a possible negative smear campaign against said individual, and more than likely, will be facing legal issues if found.

Neither myself, nor any of the list moderators, condone such actions against any individual within the industry, list member or otherwise, regarding any form of slander or negative campaigning.  Secondly, on behalf of the SCADASEC-L mailing list (myself and esp. Leif), please accept our sincerest apologies for re-posting this material.  Discussing any negative issues or events only leads to further viral and disproportionately skewed misrepresentations against people (in general).

Further, any archived data will be removed (censured) from the SCADASEC-L archive area, and prevented from being archived to search engines, such as Google.

Last, a sincere apology is extended to Mr. Pollet regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

Bob Radvanovsky
SCADASEC-L Owner

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