Slashdot Mirror
How The NSA Secures Computers
An Anonymous Reader wrote to mention an NSA site covering secure configuration guidelines for a number of operating systems. From the site: "NSA initiatives in enhancing software security cover both proprietary and open source software, and we have successfully used both proprietary and open source models in our research activities. NSA's work to enhance the security of software is motivated by one simple consideration: use our resources as efficiently as possible to give NSA's customers the best possible security options in the most widely employed products."
The NSA has customers? How long do you think it'll be before Microsoft tries to 'aquire' them as the latest 'innovation' in computer security? :D
the guide to securing Windows XP is actually a link to http://distrowatch.com/ so you can choose one of the many different options they have laid out for you.
My UID is a palindrome, that must be good for some type of prize.
Holy shit, have we just slashdotted the NSA? I can't reach the article.
Careful now you might piss of some Vietnamese twins in South Africa if you mention that again.
So, since the NSA doesn't provide instructions on how to secure a Linux computer, they're either saying Linux is so good it doesn't need to be secured (yay slashdot mentality) or its red commie software that no freedom-loving american would dare use
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Computer secures YOU!
No fucking shit. Suppose somebody said "let's use our resources INEFFICIENTLY! And given our title of NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, let's NOT PROMOTE THE BEST SECURITY OPTIONS!" Would anybody really jump up and say "that's a *brilliant* idea!"?
Hell no.
Look, to anybody with any common sense at all, it's implicit in any organization that efficiency is important. But so is security. So is safety. So is customer satisfaction. So is employee satisfaction. So is profit (if a private for-profit org).
Is it *really* especially insightful to say "we should be efficient!" anymore? Or, now that 9/11 has warped our psyche to care singlemindedly about security (almost invariably at the expense of liberty), that another top priority is security? Not to anybody with a brain.
Why do we pay people to make such broad, fucking-obvious statements again? To remind us of what we already have known since we were teenagers?
Oh yes, I swear here and ruthlessly criticize somebody for making statements that have coincided with the goal of economy (implicitly or explicitly) for the last 230 years. Mod me troll now.
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
But someone could still come to your workplace and steal the hard drive! So instead, I suggest the one time use computer- if no key is types for 5 minutes, instead of a screensaver, explosives inside the case will explode. This has the added bonus of killing the thiefs.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
2) what you want to do is sell people a turnkey solution. i.e. a device which solves the problem, no thought needed. Just make sure to give it a fancy name like, "Airgap Firewall" claim it's 100% effective and slap a $50 price tag on it.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
If you find the main site slashdotted, I have a link to someone hosting all the docs on their own PC - the guy's name is Frank and he works in some government office in Washington DC - you'll find all the docs in a sub-folder just next to the MP3 and porn store managed by someone called ZoM61e Kar1.
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Note to NSA and FBI: This is a Joke. Honest.
AT&ROFLMAO
... but was the reader really anonymous?
W2K http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http:/ /nsa.gov
The NSA has customers...
*blinks*
It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
I know these guys should know what they are talking about, but it feels a bit strange to take technical advice from someone who claims that "To download and uncompress zipped files you need to have winzip loaded on your local machine." on their XP advice page. I thought even XP could do that without addons, not to mention other OS:es which also seem to manage it just fine.
:)
Maybe they are just sponsored. Or is that "bribed" when it comes to governments?
Spine World
Just wait until you see the iNavy and iMarines posters next year. One button mouse, 24 iCBMs, It Just Works(tm)!
1000 Warheads. Impossibly Small.