Slashdot Mirror
Computer Security Still Totally Inadequate
Several news sources are running articles detailing the lack of computer security on all platforms. Symantec foretells a dark future for Firefox and Mac users describing their security as a "false paradise". Kernel developer and Red Hat fellow, Allan Cox stated in his recent interview with O'Reilly that "even the best systems today are totally inadequate". He goes on to say that "We are still in a world where an attack like the Slammer worm, combined with a PC BIOS eraser or disk locking tool, could wipe out half the PCs exposed to the Internet in a few hours," Cox said. "In a sense we are fortunate that most attackers want to control and use systems they attack rather than destroy them."
It's important perhaps to point out here that secure programs, reliable programs and correct programs are all different things. Knowing how to write provably secure programs is very different from saying we know how to write reliable or correct programs.
This is a very important point. How does one prove that software is secure? Reliablity can be checked through unit tests, etc. but security is much harder to test and takes a lot more imagination.Bradley Holt
No. No no no no no.
Mixing up your network too much just means you have (Platforms X Security Holes) to worry about.
At least with a homogeneous network as opposed to a HETEROgeneous you only have to worry about deploying patches for one platform.
In order to automatically deploy OS X patches for example, you have to have an OS X server as well (in my experience). Otherwise, you're walking to them one by one and running the packages.
Besides, choosing something because it's less of a target is simply "Security By Obscurity" in sheeps clothing. We all know how well that works huh?
Disclosure: I run a heterogeneous network out of necessity, not choice. It SUCKS.
Agreed. Symantec waving their arms at all the Mac and Firefox and open-source anti-virus users and shouting "You're not safe! You're not safe!" is self-serving propoganda, not news.