Aussie pollie

[eck]

Are the South Australian Democrats in power or official opposition, or are they a minor party?

Nice to see the occasional politician taking note of the problems inherent in a proprietary software monoculture. Ian Gilfillan comments on Sasser worm.

Comments

PEBCAK

[kelc42]

If we all jumped to various flavours Linux tomorrow I bet there would be a new worm hitting us by Monday (plus the existing linux worms already in the wild). The only worm ever to get on any of my computers was a worm that got onto my Linux box via an SSL exploit (I was just learning Linux and had not patched SSL, my bad). Unless someone creates a completely bulletproof OS (good luck) and everyone runs only bulletproof services/applications (not likely) the most widely used OS/applications will always be the main target. I agree that a single OS dominating the market is a major factor in the speed at which the latest worms have spread, but I doubt there is any near term fix for that problem. The real problem (besides the fact that script kiddies have nothing better to do than write virii and worms) is the lack of good security on so many computers. An up to date anti-virus product will stop any worm or virus infection, as long as you are not unlucky enough to be one of the first few to get it. An up to date and properly

[eck]

Okay, to get one peeve out of the way: There's no apostrophe in the posessive its!

Right, now on to your main argument.

New worm by Monday if we all jumped to various Linux flavours? I'll take that bet. While Linux is by no means immune to attack by virus or worm, it has never been as vulnerable to these attacks as all MS products to come out continue to be

[kelc42]

I didn't know I would be marked on my English (its a silly language anyway) here or I would have paid more attention in class. 8^) I understand peeves, mine largely revolve around incorrect use of words, like calling one of those white foam coffee cups a 'Styrofoam' cup

Re: PEBCAK

[buhrger]

there is a general sense in which open-source stuff is at least known to be more robust from a security point of view. so, while Linux may not fundamentally be more secure, the fact that its code is open to peer review means that it's more likely to be secure.
if you talk to the crypto-geeks, they generally prefer cryptosystems which are documented. secret codes far too often end up being easier to break. same with secret source codes.