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."

Comments

Prevent attacks?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Prevent attacks?

[sTavvy]

good if your looking at p0rn at work, and the boss walks past though!

Now if this isn't a "form" story what is...

[L0stb0Y]

New Madlibs for Slashdot! Now you too can create Slashdot Stories with these fun, GNU Madlibs!

For example:

Windows ____________ through Annoyances~

or

It's a great new __________ but can it run _______?

And the all time favorite, In _______ the ________ ___________s onto you!

How does Microsoft know my dogs' names?

[JoshuaDFranklin]

So to use this new super-secure Windows I'll have to type in huge lists of information that is boring to me?

Re:How does Microsoft know my dogs' names?

[dr_dank]

No need to worry. A backend to the Total Information Awareness database ought to fill in the blanks for you.

Vanishing Windows

[TubeSteak]

"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."
Microsoft is finally doing the /. 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!

They should use audio

[Anonymous Coward]

They should constantly play the red alert sound from star trek at full volume whenever the secure window has focus.

Re:One problem solved

[spectral]

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.)

The Ultimate Security

[SpiffyMarc]

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 do this already!

[glwtta]

Information on secured windows will vanish if another window is placed on top

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?

You call those annoyances?

[inertia187]

You call those annoyances? I call annoyances, opening a slashdot article and finding five topic icons going down the side of the screen.

com.com

[daVinci1980]

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.

it's not your data that's protected.

[twitter]

...[this] remind people that they're dealing with confidential material, Biddle said.

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!"

Re:Realy? Then here's an idea...

[Lord_Slepnir]

We at SCO already did. Here's the lawsuit for stealing our idea. Have a nice day.

Re:Prevent attacks? Boss key?

[anagama]

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.

E.g., wife/girlfriend/SO walks in the room, you scramble to hide a "secure" window ... "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.

Is it true?

[twitter]

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!

Re:So......

[los furtive]

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?

Re:Prevent attacks? Boss key?

[Ryan Amos]

E.g., wife/girlfriend/SO walks in the room, you scramble to hide a "secure" window ... "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.

Like anyone on slashdot will have that problem.

Re:So......

[Black Copter Control]

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...

I can see it now:

[rat7307]

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...

Re:Prevent attacks? Boss key?

[nigelc]

You won't win, either she sees the porn or she believes your hiding emails from an online romance. No matter what, yer screwed.

No. You have the opposite problem.

dog names?

[carpe_noctem]

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!

Re:Yeah!

[Handyman]

"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% :) )