[Hidden-tech] Random crashes in XP?

[Chris Hoogendyk]

Scott Reed wrote:
> Chris Hoogendyk wrote:
>> Unless and until Apple achieves market dominance, there is no way to 
>> truly prove that point one way or the other. While it must be 
>> accepted that hackers give more attention to the dominant OS, I 
>> believe it is also true that an OS receives attention according to 
>> it's susceptibility to being hacked. Linux provides the example. 
>> About 7 years ago, if you had a freshly installed Red Hat Linux, and 
>> you connected it to the network so that you could download updates 
>> and patches, there was a very real chance that you would get hacked 
>> before you even had a chance to download the updates. That is no 
>> longer true. 
> I'm not hearing much that contradicts my point that hackers will 
> concentrate on the most vulnerable and widely used technologies. As I 
> said, 90% of the problem is crappy MS technology but assuming MS will 
> eventually bite the dust, hackers will retool and retarget. Most of us 
> want our systems connected with relative generosity and liberty and I 
> think that will always create opportunity for mischief and crime. 

No contradiction. Just noting that "most vulnerable" and "widely used" 
are independent variables. When they coincide (as they have with 
Microsoft), you have the perfect storm. Microsoft's historic lack of 
concern for security in their OS should not be excused. The cost to the 
world economy would probably shock a lot of people if a top economist 
were to sit down and work it out.

The Linux example still stands as an OS that was vulnerable but not the 
most widely used 7 years ago. It got hacked unmercifully. Solaris 7 (a 
UNIX variant) ten years ago was routinely hacked. But that would depend 
also on the sysadmin and what had been done to secure a given server. 
Unlike Linux, the Mac, regardless of it's market share at any given 
point, has never been the target of concentrated (and successful) 
hacking. Linux got straightened out because it is open and has lots of 
people looking at the code and talking about it. Solaris 10 and Darwin 
(the BSD core of Mac OS X) are both open source now as well. Microsoft 
most likely will never be.

So, "most vulnerable" can stand on its own to make an OS the target of 
hacking. It doesn't have to be the leader in market share.

There will always be mischief makers and criminals. But, if you live in 
New York City, you don't leave your doors unlocked at night. On the 
internet, we all live in New York City. Yet Microsoft spent years 
selling people an OS that had all the doors and windows wide open and 
sometimes without the latches and locks even if the owner knew how to 
close them.


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Chris Hoogendyk

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   O__  ---- Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

<hoogendyk at bio.umass.edu>

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Erdös 4