OT: Microwang (was: Re: EVERYONE PLEASE READ !!!)

[drew at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca (Drew MacPherson)]

On Fri, 7 May 2004, Julie Macfarlane wrote:

> OK. Tired of this S**T folks. Each OS has its place. How far would computers 
> be in general public just using Linux? God forbid that the general public 
> needed to run businesses on that code.

< long silly rant about OS's deleted)

Julie - there are two issues here.  
#1) open source code (read linux and 
other free Unixes) has historically been targetted because hackers have 
access to the code and can pick it apart piece by piece.  You'll note that 
although there were some vulnerabilities present on Win32 code, all the 
really obscure and effective (ie permitting the attacker to run code) ones 
have surfaced AFTER the source for Win32 (NT/2000) was "expatriated" from 
Microsoft by a group of serious hackers.  
#2) system administration - even the most secure OS can be rendered a 
quivering pile of crap by inexperienced or naiive sysadmins.  Default 
installs of many Linuz distributions, and many Windows releases, come with 
a wealth of services open to the internet that only serve as potential 
vulnerabilities.  Even OpenBSD (7 years with no remote vulnerabilities in 
the default install!) can be hacked if installed or administered by 
someone who's not security concious.

Don't be hard on the OS - don't be hard on the hackers.  Be hard on 
yourself for not administering the box correctly.  The internet is a big, 
hairy jungle, and probably will continue to be so for some time.  If 
you're not prepared to take steps to protect your interests, then unplug 
your network connection and go back to pen and ink.

Drew


-- 

84 Wolfsburg Ed. Scirocco GTD     http://scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca/gtd
89 Audi 200 Turbo Quattro Avant
94 A3 Golf GL TurboDiesel, 99 A3 Jetta GL TDI
=========================================================================
At the time this email was written there were only
27 days, 5 hours, and 41 minutes until Cincy2K+4!  Have YOU packed yet?