Microsoft Says "War on Terror" is Overblown

SlinkySausage writes "The endless security measures imposed on society as a result of the "war on terror" have become overblown and intrusive, according to Microsoft Redmond senior security analyst Steve Riley. He made the comments in a talk at day one of Tech.Ed Australia about software security. Riley also fessed up that Microsoft cocked up XP from a security perspective. "We let you down with XP," he said. Microsoft also showed a very interesting new desktop virtualisation technology called SoftGrid, which allows applications to be virtualised individually, rather than a whole OS. Think Virtual PC or VMware, but instead of virtualising an OS, just a single application is virtualised."

Comments

But if the government doesn't keep us in constant

[antifoidulus]

fear, how can we rationalize blowing up random Middle Eastern countries who have rulers that didn't like the President's father? Jeez what is with this Microsoft guy, some people are just SOOOOOOOOO selfish!

don't worry

[nomadic]

"We let you down with XP,"

No you didn't, that implies that we had expectations of you.

Re:What's smart about a false choice?

[Macthorpe]

With sftp Available on Windows.

and konqueror Or Internet Explorer 7.

With real user and process separation Also available on Windows.

Piggybacking on a high post

[Anonymous Coward]

The Power of Nightmares is a must-watch documentary to see what it's all about.

FOSSie ignorance

[Anonymous Coward]

Ease of use is always counter to security. Security obstructs- that's what it's SUPPOSED to do.

But somehow, in the dreamworld FOSSies live in, they are going to claim they have found the magic formula which lets them have it both ways. But then again, denial of reality is a hallmark of the FOSSie agenda. It's all propaganda, all the time: no room for reality in FOSSie-land.

Is it any wonder the Head FOSSie in charge of getting teh Lunix working on the desktop quit in frustration? Is it any wonder that teh Lunix's market share on the desktop doesn't even exceed the statistical margin of error? Is it any wonder that Apache is losing market share to IIS?

No... none of it is surprising. Users are waking up to a better way of doing things. Setting up a server shouldn't take half a day. Configuring a web server securely shouldn't take the other half. Getting everything working on a desktop workstation shouldn't take an entire day and hours reading support forums. But all of that is exactly the kind of paradise "free" software is trying to bring to everyone.

So go back to class, kid. Once your acne clears up, maybe your love of teh Lunix and your drinking of the FOSSie kool-aid will have faded, and you can get a tech support job doing such highly important things as installing memory and blowing the dust out of dirty power supplies. That's about the only work FOSS will qualify you for. Heck, if you don't know MS Office, you can't even get a data entry job these days.

Your ignorance betrays you

[Anonymous Coward]

I call BS on this.

First, print drivers have no reason to be kernel-mode. None whatsoever. Printers are either connected through ethernet (the proper way), or USB (the cheap way). Either way, there's no reason for kernel-mode drivers; user-mode drivers can do all the work of formatting the data to be sent to the device. Notice that in Linux, all printer drivers are user-mode, and are usually actually called "filters", since they're just changing the data, not directly interacting with low-level hardware. Usually, all that needs to be done is convert the file to Postscript or PCL or some other printer control language.

There may not be a reason for them to run in kernel mode, but that's how it is. Pick up a book, or take a class. Learn the way Windows XP (or Vista) works before you start creating fictitious claims about what it can and cannot do.

We aren't talking about teh Lunix, so what you know about teh Lunix has no relevance in a Windows discussion. Windows uses a different OS design, and places different priorities on different things. Windows always tends to favor flexibility, which is why it holds the position in the marketplace it does.

Every time a Lunix d00d says Windows can't do something, that automatically means there are at least four ways you actually CAN do it in Windows. Lunix d00dz are the worst people in the world to give advice on getting stuff to actually work. They would rather spend ten hours looking for a FOSSie app to get something to work... which they could spent five minutes looking up in a reference book to see how Windows does it natively.

However, the norm on Linux systems is that root sets up printers and printer drivers, because it's easier that way and makes more sense: the printer is a system-connected device, not one which each user should have to set up himself. So root sets up the printer with CUPS, and then users just have to select it and print to it.

Unpriveleged users can actually install network printers on Windows using "Point and Print". It just has to be set up on the network print server, which a qualified Windows administrator would already know how to do (which is why Lunix d00dz pretending to know Windows never get the network working properly). You can also tie in HP's Web JetAdmin (combined with Point and Print) to create a really slick looking and professional way of setting up your network printers (which, again, a Lunix d00d would have no idea about).

Re:What's the big security problem with XP?

[Kalriath]

Why the fuck is this modded insightful you idiots?

Twitter, get a real fucking source, not your bloody journal. Especially your journal with a page of comments telling you why it's all complete bullshit.