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Security Concerns When Consoles Go Online?
VonGuard writes "I've written an article for Security Focus about the security concerns that having an Xbox or Playstation 2 on your network might raise. The article, entitled Welcome to the Jungle was an interesting experience to write. I really think that Sony will end up having some trouble from their stance on third party security design, while Microsoft might end up smelling like roses. Too bad MS shipped the Nimda virus with their Korean version of .Net Visual Studio."
Microsoft decided some time ago that the best way to create a good online gaming experience for a console is to maintain a console's three biggest advantages over PC gaming.
No Cheating
No Viruses
And no Cheating
Cheating in online games has reached such epidemic porportions on the PC that many have given up on it completely. Others just slug it out and learn to deal with it.
Microsoft wants to offer 3rd party mods and the like to its customers. Since they get a cut of every game sold for the Xbox, it makes sense for them to freely distribute mods that increase the value of the games and the console. But they want to check to make sure the mods aren't buggy, virus infected peices of shit that are going to screw up a few million Xboxes.
They want to take all the mods, pour over them, check them for cheats and viruses then let you d/l them. All the while monitor for cheats in use.
If they can do it, more power to them.
If not, the Xbox is in trouble.
I give them 50/50 odds.
I'm sure a lot of people are like "OMG, Microsoft, evil, evil evil! They can't do anything right!"
Well, they are evil (so are Nintendo and Sony in their own ways) and they do screw up more than they succeed. But they do have divisions which score a win on a regular basis.
The Macintosh Business Division was created when it became clear that teaching some Windows guys the Mac's APIs and sitting them down to port Word or something was a complete disaster. A small team of people who Knew What They Were Doing sat down and without interference from the rest of the company, were allowed to do their own thing.
The result? The versions of Office, IE, Outlook and other Microsoft apps are lightyears ahead of their Windows counterparts. They pick up the latest APIs and exploit them before anyone else. Their products tend to be stable, well-thought out and actually useable.
How has the community reacted? The MBU averages 1 Billion+ dollars in revenue every year.
Could the X-Box division do the same thing? Yes
Is it too early to tell? Yes
Does it look promising? Yes
They've already made a number of good decisions with the Xbox. Excluding the bizzarely unreliable store models, they are stable and reliable machines that can be left on for ages. The hard drive didn't bring patches for games, but only free expansion discs, personal game soundtracks and the end of memory card hell. The money I've saved in memory cards has nearly paid for games I own.
The breakaway cables have saved me about half a dozen destroyed Xboxes.
The DVD kit saved me when an out of warranty DVD player turned to crap.
The Xbox has some issues, but it doesn't have the "too many hands in the pie" problem that Windows and the PC versions of IE, Outlook and Office do that lead to bloat, instability and security problems.
They can make it work. It's their call wether they do or not
Too bad MS shipped the Nimda virus with their Korean version of .Net Visual Studio.
.NET team does something poorly, they deserve to get slammed. But the Xbox team does not need to hear about the mistakes of the .NET team. You wouldn't say that the Playstation 2 sucks because Sony supports copy protection on its CDs, would you? That was un-called-for.
Now, wait a second. These are two completely unrelated parts of the company. If the Xbox team does something well, they deserve praise, and if the
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.