atw: Re: O.T. "Reliance on Microsoft a threat to security: experts"

Hi Brian

Not knowing the reference to which the original email referred, it is 
blatently obvious to anyone knowledgeable in the computer industry that the 
implied "message" ie the inability of MS to provide suitably sound OS 
software is quite true.

Microsoft has always and continous to provide an OS that is full of 
security holes. It was not designed from the gound up to be a secure multi- 
user AND multi-tasking system. Each version has been a build up from the 
previous version and in many cases carried forward the legacy of bugs from 
one version to the next.

This idea of pre-emptive multitasking is pathetic in some cases. How come 
if I start one app and they decide _I_ want to do something else, surely 
the pre-empting should see that I choose to do something else and provide 
MY choice with the processor time NOT what MS Windoze _thinks_ it should 
do.

Anyway I digressed, much of the limits of Windoze has come about (IMHO) 
because of MS desire to control every part of the OS with every other part 
of the OS, hence vba for almost everything. Combine this with the ABYSMAL 
lack of security and you have many ways of accessing areas that should NOT 
be accessed without security controls.

Take for example the ability of MS Word to delete files from the file open 
dialog - how secure is that (NOT!)

So whether or not the journalist in question quotes names of authors or 
not, or whether there is testable data or not does NOT change the fact that 
...

> that computers and critical technological infrastructure worldwide >are 
> increasingly vulnerable to attack
> because of the security practices >and dominance of Microsoft software in 
> desktop computing.

This IS SO! This is also unlikely to change because of MS practices alluded 
to previously.

If MS OS's were as good as MS say they are, they we would not have had the 
blaster virus that ONLY affected XP machines - supposedly much more secure 
than Win98. Hah! Yes, it is more secure in some respects however as is well 
known now, after the blaster virus, that there are security holes.

So what Michael has stated is correct, and I have previously advanced these 
thoughts myself to the list.

There are far too many people that give MS far too much leeway in what they 
(MS) manufacture. They continually sell what is in some ways a dud product 
and yet the unknowing new users or less computer literate amongst the user 
base have grown up with MS and its foibles (to put it mildy) and have now 
come to accept this as the norm!

This should not have been nor should it now be the case, however MS being 
almost omnipresent in pc's can get away with it because of MS's dominance 
and this "blue screen of death" acceptance.

Linux is gaining ground be it ever so slowly. No doubt there would be (are) 
Linux viruses. However because of the inbuilt (from the gorund up) security 
such virus problems would always be minimal.

In short - It is NOT a load of old cobblers!!!!!!

Regards

Peter


On Thu, 25 Sep 2003 16:54:44 +1000, Brian Clarke 
<brianclarke01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Michael,
> What a load of old cobblers!
> The journalist only quotes the names of authors as though this is some 
> kind of shibboleth. There is not one skerrick of testable data in the 
> whole piece.
> Just journalistic fop. If we were professionals we would test data before 
> passing it off as valuable.
> Brian.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Edward Granat To: 
> austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 3:51 PM
> Subject: atw: O.T. "Reliance on Microsoft a threat to security: experts"
>
> As I have said many times over to this list, as consulting professionals 
> we have a duty of care to challenge the MS status quo where it creates 
> problems for ourselves and our customers.
> From the Sydney Morning Herald.
>
> >A number of leading corporate technology officers and researchers have 
> >warned that computers and critical technological infrastructure 
> worldwide >are increasingly vulnerable to attack because of the security 
> practices >and dominance of Microsoft software in desktop computing.
> <http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/25/1064083097573.html>

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