FBI, Pentagon Talk to MS about XP Hole

Posted by timothy on Saturday December 22, 2001 @01:33AM from the step-inside-the-circle-of-trust dept.

(eternal_software) writes: "The Associated Press is reporting that the FBI and Defense Department are talking to Microsoft about the serious flaws found in the XP operating system. As we all know, the most recent flaw allowed any XP machine to be hijacked simply by connecting it to the internet. The government is getting involved because of growing U.S. concerns about risks to the 'net as a whole." In fact, the FBI would like you to go a bit beyond the MS patch. davecl points out the updated page put out by the National Infrastructure Protection Center about this vulnerability as well.

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Lesson from virology by f00zbll · 2001-12-22 03:39 · Score: 1, Redundant

Sure it is great to have everyone use the same productivity applications (MS Office and windows), but the down side is the smallest weakness can kill the entire population (windows machines). Any virologist will tell you it is evolutionarily bad to have monoculture, since a virus will happen. It is just a matter of time.
If one were to look at history and see which animals survived drastic changes, the most adaptive wins. Microsoft does provide some great products like excel and maybe word. But at some point, it's size becomes an barrier to rapid adaptation. As George C Scott said in the movie patton "all glory is fleeting."