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Financial Institutions Balk at MS Licensing
mmol_6453 writes "Now, not only are hospitals groaning under the combination of Microsoft and the HIPAA, but banks are having issues relating to federal privacy laws. Favorite line: 'Microsoft has told...that it plans eventually to eliminate users' ability to disable Microsoft's access to their systems.'"
"That makes Warby nervous. "Microsoft is definitely not known for their internal security," he says, citing undocumented macros in some Microsoft programs, which can be accessed by those who know the right combination of keystrokes. "The idea of Microsoft coming into a server, creates a potentially huge security risk," he says."
has anyone got any examples of this anywhere? i'd be curious to see some of these macros..
- pwd...container...host....logon...restart...data source
....you get the idea.If you are looking for specific troublemaking 'poison-pill' macros, I'm sorry, I don't have those handy, but if you want, I can send you a Word document you can fill out to request them
I don't use Windows Update, but my understanding is that the "let Microsoft dig through your system" stuff is only if you do use Windows Update. If this is correct, then there is no problem - don't use it!
Surely someone managing machines in a business critical environment would have the nous to turn off the auto-update? Don't use it. Install patches and hot-fixes manually after fully testing them to make sure they don't kill your system. Do not rely on Microsoft (or any third party vendor for that matter) to automatically update your servers without you knowing exactly what is going on!
The XP-related stuff though, is a bit of a worry. Then again, the solution is pretty straight-forward - DON'T USE XP. If you need Windows, use Windows 2000. If Microsoft bring the same checks in to 2000 via future service packs, then configure your firewall properly and stop it happening.
My mom phones me weekly yapping about some new virus that has slipped into her computer. She is 50+ and i think she is doing a nice job learning her WinXP. What she is frustrated with is the fact that she has a firewall, a antivirus program and she updates often even if she is on a modem. Still she have gotten successful attacks into her machine and even viruses has slipped past her antivirus system. She is getting real paranoid and feels that its not fun anymore when you have to be a fully fledged sysadmin to surf and write mails. She is going for linux and i will try to install it as safe as possible for her. No services open and a default drop on incoming connections should keep her safe for a while. That is what i would call proactive security.
Security must be proactive and not reactive. MS is simplifying reactive security instead of focusing on proactive security. The old vuln ??? patch treadmill is stupid. I think some dists should stop making their default installs wide open aswell. Close all ports and code a nice simple app that makes it easy to open the ones you need to be open.
HTTP/1.1 400
that's right, what happens when M$ decides to go kazaa all over your system. there's nothing you can do about it. face it, its just your hardware, the OS (i use the term lightly for windoze) belongs to them, 100%. You're just borrowing it. That's not good enough to pass muster for private information. If M$ wasn't so large, a bill to make them post surety bond for every financial house would be an ideal restraint for the mighty beast
oh well, chances of legislation unsupportive of m$ are about as likely as me giving birth.
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
MS wants to be a bank, remember? How better to throttle back competition than by tossing a smoke bomb or two into their home office...
"While other banking institutions are suffering from network slowdowns and corrupted databases, MS First Union can provide you with reliable access to your funds around the clock. Bank with MSFU....we keep an eye on your money!"
Why am I having a hard time believing that business as we know it will come to a complete halt if MS isn't allowed in the door?
Commerce in one form or another, from bartering coconuts to brokering used RAM, will find a way to continue, regardless if the transaction is on limestone, paper or bubble-ether crystals. Unified...disparate...co-mingled...far-stepped or translucid....who cares. The point is supply and demand, not demand by MS.
Yet, so far, the reports of them actually doing something about it and moving away from MS are very thin on the ground.
It would appear that however much MS wishes to shoot itself in the foot, or deny users specific rights, people are still unwilling to move to a different OS.
The fact Linux is free didn't compell them, the fact Linux doesn't "phone home" didn't compell them, the fact Linux is easier to maintain within an organisation didn't compell them, the fact Linux doesn't come with arcane restrictions on what you can and can't do with your PC didn't compell them, the fact Linux doesn't suffer so many virus attacks didn't compell them, the fact Linux is more secure and robust didn't compell them and the fact that Linux applications can read and write Word documents didn't compell them to move.
So the question is, what on earth will compell them to drop Windows on the desktop? Because it's sure as hell not any of the issues we've seen so far.
(and here i'm talking about the masses, not the odd special case)
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Corporate security officers really should be concerned about this. From a security and privacy point of view, Windows XP is already out of control, and it looks like it's getting worse. Even if all those connections were harmless, it's hard to even identify a real trojan horse with all that junk going on.
Software updates and contacts to other services are much more sensible under Linux: nothing happens unless you explicitly enable it, you have the option of updating via media or mirrors, and all software updates can happen through a single server.
I turn off automatic updates on all machine I admin (about 250 across various organizations), not out of greed, but out of fear and responsibility. The fear part comes in when you get a call at 6 am, followed by 10 more in the next hour saying 'all our computers are dead'. Not a happy day. Automatic updates can do this, and have done it to me. I like to get a patch, test it, THEN install it.
If your computers are protected properly, (firewall, virus scanners w/ heuristics etc), you can get away with not patching for a day or 2. Use this time wisely, large corporations do, you should also. That is the fear part.
The resopnsibility comes in when you test the stuff for your clients so the BSOD scenario does not happen. I charge a lot, but thing like this make me worth it to clients.
-Charlie
You mean auto update with things like SP4 for NT that broke TCP/IP, SP6 that was rapidly replaced with SP6a (don't know why there), DirectX 8.0 that was rapidly replaced with DirectX 8.0a ...
So, tell me again why autoupdate is a good idea.
My mom phones me weekly yapping about some new virus that has slipped into her computer.
... in fact she loves the fact that it is quick and stable, unlike the much more expensive machine she uses at work, which is down for software repairs quite frequently.
... unlike Windows, it does not change its behavior for no apparent reason, nor does it break mysteriously simply because you've added a new piece of software.
My mom has been running Debian for almost two years, and aside from a few calls early on of the "how do I do X under Linux" type, I haven't had to field any calls at all (none within the last year. None). Indeed, I havent had to fix her computer once since I installed it nearly two years ago.
Not once.
Now that Applix has grown a little staid, I'm probably going to upgrade her to Gentoo 1.4 when it is released, with Open Office.
She works with Microsoft every day at work, and has been agitating her employer to let her use GNU/Linux instead. My mom, who, like yours, is 50+.
However, even if her employer doesn't let her switch, she has no trouble importing and exporting to Microsoft Word and Excel formats using her GNU/Linux box
Most especially, she likes not having to worry about the latest Klez worm or misc. virus, something that is steadilly stressing out all her friends.
My mother, who is computer competent but certainly not computer savvy, has become a stronger propoent of Linux and free software than I have. All the Microsoft-funded astroturfers keep harping about how the consumers wants this or that slick or shiny feature, when in truth all of the computer illiterate and computer competent (but not necessarilly savvy) people I've exposed to GNU/Linux haven't ever wanted to go back. Why?
Because in truth people don't care all that much about shiny feature X or slick feature Y, they care far more about stability, predictability, and the ability to simply get their work done. And that is where GNU/Linux truly excells
What is interesting is how few people realize they have a viable choice, and once they do realize it, how many (of the people I know, at least, of various walks of life) end up dumping Windows like a bad habit.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy