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Windows Security Through Annoyances?
techmuse writes "According to News.com,
Microsoft's next version of Windows will let you know that you are looking
at (supposedly) secure data by putting personalized text, such as the names
of your dogs (a null list in my case), in window borders, and will also hide
the data unless the window has no others on top of it. That should make it very usable, and speed adoption of security features -- especially among
people who need to be able to see the data in two partially overlapping
windows at once."
Information on secured windows will vanish if another window is placed on top of it or shifted to the background. Erasing the information will prevent certain types of attacks and remind people that they're dealing with confidential material, Biddle said
What kinds of attacks would those be? The over the shoulder snoop sort?
Why does this sound like an april fools joke....
Only 'flamers' flame!
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Windows ____________ through Annoyances~
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"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."
So to use this new super-secure Windows I'll have to type in huge lists of information that is boring to me?
"Information on secured windows will vanish if another window is placed on top of it or shifted to the background. Erasing the information will prevent certain types of attacks and remind people that they're dealing with confidential material, Biddle said." /. crowd a favor. No more rushing to minimize a window when your boss walks by. Just make slashdot a 'secured' page and Alt-Tab anything else over top it. *POOF* it appears like you've been working all along!
Microsoft is finally doing the
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
What's with article summary's on here lately? This one was so bad I actually had to read the article to find out what the hell he was talking about.
Is that 'Microsoft' secure or 'secure' secure?
Besides, I've always found that the little lock in the Mozilla window works fine.
That's not a soda... it's a caffeine delivery device!
They should constantly play the red alert sound from star trek at full volume whenever the secure window has focus.
Humans are a security problem, because they contain their own pool of memory too. Let's get rid of them. Deleting a person's memory is easier than the video card's too: One click of the trigger is all it takes. Just Point and Click.
I'd have no clue how to wipe out my video card's memory. (No, shutting off the computer won't do it. I've seen plenty that when they turn back on, the last screen visible is there for a split second.)
Sure, it's all well and good to display sensitive information with a special border, but what if someone writes down what they see and then leaves it just lying around? Where's your special borders then?
The solution is obvious: don't display the data at all!
I've discovered this feature of windowed GUIs a long time ago - you cake take virtually any window, place it over your current window and POOF! the data vanishes, completely obsucred by the new window on top of it. Isn't it neat?
sic transit gloria mundi
You call those annoyances? I call annoyances, opening a slashdot article and finding five topic icons going down the side of the screen.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
You *might* disbelieve the article because it comes from news.com.com, but I personally find them to be the highest caliber of news organization.
Right up there with the LA Times, The National Enquirer, and the Weekly World News.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Well first off, the tiny lock symbol at the bottom of the screen is a great idea in theory-- but like the need-oil-indicator in your car some people just don't notice it. Now, if you walked out to your car one morning to find it has changed colors and the dash said "please give me oil boss" then we would probably see less stranded blonde soccer moms mini vans on the side of the road. This is a good thing, personally I think it's cool-- it will just depend on its implementation. Hopefully it will not become skinnable, the last thing we need is skinned SKIN-YOUR-SECURE-WINDOW!! ! pop up advertisements.
Decaffeinated coffee? Kinda like kissing your sister. - Bob Irwin
What kinds of attacks would those be? The over the shoulder snoop sort?
This is classic "protection". It will remind you that Bill Gates knows where you live and the names of your cats just in case you get funny ideas about infringing on copyrights or alternte software. "Yes sir, I'll pay the windoze tax. Thank you so much for all you do for me!"
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
It's a good thing Microsoft still includes options to turn off all the new crap features (from hide file extensions to cant share "Program Files" directory.
I still wish they would just sum them up in one "I'm not retarded or anything like that." checkbox. With every new windows version it takes me longer and longer to find the switches to turn off the silly features.
Sindri Traustason.
You should patent it!
I knew it! Bill Gates hates cats, and this is the beginning of his scheme to eradicate them from the face of the earth.
Come on, Fluffy! We're switching to Linux!
Reminds me of the "boss key" some older games had, e.g., you're playing at work, see the boss coming, hit the boss key and something possibly work related fills the screen. This sounds about as effective.
... "what are you doing?" ... "errr, nothing, just reading /." ... You won't win, either she sees the porn or she believes your hiding emails from an online romance. No matter what, yer screwed.
E.g., wife/girlfriend/SO walks in the room, you scramble to hide a "secure" window
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Is it true? I heard that the next version of Media Player will have a custom graphic for each user. I will display images of your loved ones, pets and property being threatened. While everyone will have the same images of meat cleavers, assault weapons, pitchforks and firebrands all shaking to the beat. The pictures of pets and property, however, will be unique to each luser. If you pull up another company's media player or juke box, the music will dissapear. If you copy the music file or pull up a music sharing client, the pets will cry and the house will burn. Spyware will report you to the RIAA so that these visions can come true, cool!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
What about public computer terminals though?
No problem, it will be safely available everywhere from MS.Passport. What do you mean it isn't safe?
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
Oh that's alright. Don't worry. I've already gained access to your information in their 'vault' and I'll sell it back to you for only $500. It's a bargain.
And if you don't want it, that's ok, I've got *lots* of customers.
KFG
Like anyone on slashdot will have that problem.
It's not like the stuff on passport security is critical... It's only your email, your identifying information, your credit card number and ...... Well it's not like it's life-threatening...
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
That happens _all the time_. Boy, I'm glad somebody is doing something about this.
Wait, my doctors and accountants barely have time to use e-mail, much less, format html to send to me.
Enter Dogs Name:
FIDO
WARNING: Dogs name too short, should be 6-8 characters long and
use combination of numbers and UPPER and lowercase letters.
Enter Dogs Name:
FiDo1234
Dogs name accepted...
Burma?
No. You have the opposite problem.
Cthulhu Barata Nikto
Yes, we need to move everyone's memory and put it on a machine in Redmond. I think 640 kb ought to be enough for most people.
My dog's names are "Teenage", "Slut", "Live", and "Webcams"....and I swear to GOD, it's the new Window's security mechanisms that are responsible for their appearance on all my window titles!
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
Oh yeah, Microsoft's woderful remote hardware control tools, such as the plug and play deamon that listens to an open port. I'm sure everyone's seen it before, but I must post the results of such weakenesses. View the sum of stupid, Ha-Ha. Don't worry Microsoft has issued the uber patch, had the month long security hug and changed their security model to include M$ rooting you at will! Dancing pet names and total lack of control of files on your hard drive should make you feel so much more secure. Oh yeah!
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Didn't I have to give up morals with Licensing 6.0?
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
Then when we get REALLY good, we integrate photon to neutrino decay that ensures that Gates' pearly whites can't gleam beyond the user's calibrated seating distance!
Windows will automatically launch a BSOD when user is watching sensitive data.
This way the data keeps secure!
... the dog gets it!
Whoaa... Isn't that kind of opinion to be considered anti-American?
I always thought the American way is:
"One name one login."
:) )
Eine Name, eine Login, ein Fuehrer!
(Just to ensure that the old adage becomes true, the one that says that when a discussion becomes longer the chance that a comparison to Nazis pop up becomes 100%
Jeez, who comes up with these names? You'd think they did it on purpose so their DRM would be harder to complain about. "NGSCB" doesn't suggest anything about security; the first thing that comes to mind is No-Good SCumBags. At least "Palladium" has an appealing sound.