nanog mailing list archives
Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious
From: sthaug () nethelp no
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 23:09:13 +0200
Ok.. but has BSD been attacked on the scale that MS code has? I would argue no, not even close. Do you believe BSD is invulnerable to attack? Hardly..
I don't believe anybody is claiming that. However, the BSD code has been out *and* has been publicly scrutinized for quite a bit longer than Windows.
Unless you want to go back to text based browsers and kernals that fit on a floppy, it is extermely difficult to eliminate all vulnerabilities in the code of a sophisticated OS. The more complex the system, the easier it is to break, and with the level of automation currently expected by most users, this requires a very complex build.
However, Microsoft creates complexity by design, because they integrate more and more stuff into the basic OS, and because all the various applications gain more features with each new release.
Could MS be made more secure, of course. Do I think they are actively working on the problem, yes.
Looks to me like they are actively working in two directions: - Trying to make the systems more secure by teaching developers to think about security, etc. - Trying to make the systems less secure, by making them steadily more complex. (And please don't try to tell me the *users* are demanding all the new features that MS put into the systems.) It will be interesting to see which direction wins out in the long run.
If Novell or Mac had risen to the top of the OS heap, would they be catching all the viruses now? I think they would.
They would certainly be catching viruses. Would they be catching *as many* viruses as MS? We don't know.
Really, my point was not to argue this, but that there is no justification for malicious code, that you can't simply pawn it off on MS as being the real problem.
However, you can certainly argue that MS is *part of* the problem, or that they have *created* a large part of the problem themselves. Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug () nethelp no
Current thread:
- RE: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious, (continued)
- RE: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Brian Battle (Jul 12)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Alexei Roudnev (Jul 13)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Petri Helenius (Jul 13)
- RE: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Michel Py (Jul 13)
- RE: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Michel Py (Jul 13)
- RE: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Brian Battle (Jul 13)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Alexei Roudnev (Jul 14)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious John Underhill (Jul 14)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Niels Bakker (Jul 14)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious John Underhill (Jul 14)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious sthaug (Jul 14)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious (let's return to reality) Alexei Roudnev (Jul 14)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious (let's return to reality) Brett (Jul 15)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious (let's return to reality) Curtis Maurand (Jul 15)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious (let's return to reality) Alexei Roudnev (Jul 15)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Alexei Roudnev (Jul 14)
- RE: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Brian Battle (Jul 12)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Alexei Roudnev (Jul 14)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Jeff Shultz (Jul 15)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Valdis . Kletnieks (Jul 16)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Valdis . Kletnieks (Jul 16)
- Re: Spyware becomes increasingly malicious Alexei Roudnev (Jul 14)