ms windows is a threat to national security

I'm not much for conspiracy theories. I often worried about being accused of spreading such during the many instances over the past several years in which I wrote about the lack of attention to cybersecurity within our online infrastructure.

[Sean M Price]

Windows is not a threat to National Security. It is incredibly difficult to write secure and correct code. In fact, problems with secure coding remain an open academic problem. The problems with Windows can be found in all software. You need only look to the regular reporting of flaws found at www.uscert.gov and the National Vulnerability Database (http://nvd.nist.gov/ ) to see that there are problems with lots of other products, including Linux flavors. Attackers focus on Windows because it is the most prevalent and provides the widest avenue of opportunity. Many compromises occur due to flaws in code. But ask yourself, why do they persist? The main reason is that we poorly manage our systems. Do you know the size, signature (i.e. cryptographic hash), and function of every type of software module on your system? Probably not. Most people do not. It is this lack of knowledge that is our doom. The real problem with the security of our systems is a lack of prudent management. White listing is the best line of defense. Some might say this is too tedious. But consider this, would you trust your money to a bank if it didn’t understand the nuances of financial systems and transactions? Would you take your car to a dealership for repair if they had no manuals describing all of the engine parts and torque values? Why should we not use the same approaches to build and maintain our computer systems? Microsoft is not the threat. Bad actors are the threat and we enable criminals to infiltrate our systems due to poor management practices.

[rasmasyean]

These articles are a threat to national security...

[Haha]

Dream on, Mac-user. Macs are only protected with security by obscurity, and when Macs become prevalent, boy, will you change you mind in an instant. Macs are much easier to hack than Windows, and it is only because Windows is so widely used that people target it.

[RJB]

This argument goes in circles. I tend to agree with the philosophy that homogenous culture is a threat to national security. I don't think that US gov't should be all Macs, or all proprietary UNIX nor all BSD or Linux. There should be a more even mix of any and all well-developed, secure operating systems, including Microsoft Windows. I think Windows for each employees workstation is not a serious security threat since the average government employee does not have information nor privilege to systems that can have consequences on a national level.

It's my understanding that even though there is a dominance of MS Windows in our national systems, there are also many UNIX and UNIX variant systems...not to mention operating systems we don't even know exist.

I don't think we (the public) even have a clue about the computer systems integrated into servers on which a security breach could have severe consequences on a national level. Besides...if things get too bad, we can unplug the cable, turn on our ham radios and let those pale-skinned hackers have it with a plain old machine gun. May God help though if Microsoft Windows CE is embedded in missile guidance systems.

[Gammler]

Linux rules.

[rasmasyean]

RJB wrote:

May God help though if Microsoft Windows CE is embedded in missile guidance systems.

And autonomous robots too!
http://g-nius.co.il/info-pages/careers.html

[Hate Windoze]

Sean M Price wrote:

Windows is not a threat to National Security. It is incredibly difficult to write secure and correct code. In fact, problems with secure coding remain an open academic problem. The problems with Windows can be found in all software. You need only look to the regular reporting of flaws found at www.uscert.gov and the National Vulnerability Database (http://nvd.nist.gov/ ) to see that there are problems with lots of other products, including Linux flavors. Attackers focus on Windows because it is the most prevalent and provides the widest avenue of opportunity. Many compromises occur due to flaws in code. But ask yourself, why do they persist? The main reason is that we poorly manage our systems. Do you know the size, signature (i.e. cryptographic hash), and function of every type of software module on your system? Probably not. Most people do not. It is this lack of knowledge that is our doom. The real problem with the security of our systems is a lack of prudent management. White listing is the best line of defense. Some might say this is too tedious. But consider this, would you trust your money to a bank if it didn’t understand the nuances of financial systems and transactions? Would you take your car to a dealership for repair if they had no manuals describing all of the engine parts and torque values? Why should we not use the same approaches to build and maintain our computer systems? Microsoft is not the threat. Bad actors are the threat and we enable criminals to infiltrate our systems due to poor management practices.

Windoze sucks. Anyone that likes Windoze sucks.