On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 17:04:59 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Perspective: Microsoft security--no more second chances?
>
> ,----[ Excerpt ]
> | CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says the software maker is running out
> | of excuses for a history of poor security. `----
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | As if Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff didn't have enough
> on | his plate.
> |
> | Not only has he had to deal with Katrina and Osama. Now he's also got
> to | whip Steve Ballmer and the crew at Microsoft into shape. If past is
> | prologue, that last task may be the most daunting of all. `----
>
> http://news.com.com/2010-1002_3-6104512.html?part=rss&tag=6104512&subj=news
I liked this:
"Here's something to consider: If bridge builders or airplane designers
applied the same standards to their labors, do you believe that the
public would so easily forgive the regularity with which bridges would
collapse and airliners fall out of the sky?"
Something I was thinking about the other day: Once upon a time hackers
were interested only in the challenge of professionally administered
big-iron systems. Hacking into desktop machines was sneered at as suitable
only for script kiddies and wannabes. Had Windows been as secure as Linux,
this is probably the way things would still be today.
However, Windows isn't very secure at all. By providing a large pool of
easily-hacked machines, Microsoft encouraged the big spam outfits to
establish profitable armies of Windows zombies. Many of these outfits are
tied in with big crime so it was only a matter of time then before the
crime organizations saw other possibilities for their large networks of
zombies. The successful attack on Blue Frog demonstrates the kind of power
they wield. If the rumors are true, some are already selling their
ability to take down an entire country's networking infrastructure and are
now working on ways to hold the entire Internet for ransom.
Thanks to Microsoft's weak security, unskilled home users are defending
their machines not just against script kiddies and hacker wannabes, but
also large teams of topnotch hackers competing to win millions of dollars
in big-crime contracts.
|
|
