Bad news for those concerned about Windows security: At the Black Hat security conference last week, hacker managed to crack into the system — and this before it’s even released.
Windows Vista is in beta, of course, so one might argue that cracking a beta system is no big deal. But, in fact, it is. Microsoft has spent a great deal of work hardening security in Vista. That it’s already cracked is worrisome.
Will Vista be more secure than XP? Certainly. But it looks as if it won’t be as secure as Microsoft had hoped.
Keep in mind, of course, that new operating systems may tend to have more exposed holes than older ones, simply because they haven’t been attacked as much, and therefore not patched as much. But wasn’t the whole point of Vista security that it wouldn’t be subject to this kind of thing?
I expect that soon after Vista ships, we’ll see a slew of security patches. Even out the door, it will be safer than XP. And over time, I expect it to be much more secure, although it may be a painful process to get there.
Hey Preston,
While I agree that this sucks, it seems to me that if its going to get hacked, better now *BEFORE* it ships so that when it does the "cracks" will have long since been repaired.
While I doubt they see it this way, and even given the fact that Microsoft itself has staffed hackers who's job it is to try and hack the system such that any discovered holes can be patched, the BlackHat's, at least at this stage anyway, are doing MS a favor.
Of course, the competition will use this kind of stuff to suggest that Vista is "flawed" and "horribly designed" my "brainless monkeys in a room full of typewriters" the reality, as you well know, is the exact opposite. While there are *always* going to be competitive threats keeping them honest, the list of events that would need to transpire between now and when Vista ships + a solid 5-7 years thereafter to keep Vista from reaching the critical mass adoption rate that XP has long since reached, would look something like this:
* Write drivers for *ALL* past and present hardware devices that Windows provides support that are currently not supported on Linux, Mac, or both.
* Convince several hundred million people that "living life without the applications that you currently know and (in some cases) love, is really not as big of a deal as you think it is."
* Convince these same several hundred million people that the applications they could use in replacement for these same mentioned apps are "good enough for their needs", whatever that means.
* Convince these same [fill in the blank] that learning these new replacement apps is really "not that big of a deal."
* Convince [...] that if they want support for their product that "the folks in the forums are *REALLY* helpful!"
* After the first ScriptKiddie calls them an idiot cuz' they can't figure out how to "just write a bash script to do that!" convince [...] that that these same forums are "still *REALLY* helpful!"
* Convince [...] that [...x^n]
Obviously I could go on, but given the fact that we've barely even scratched the surface, I'll save yours, mine, and whomever else who happens to read this, time by letting you fill things in as needed.
Actually, come to think of it, the *BEST* way to ensure Vista's success would be to initially convince the world that one of the other OS options would be the best choice, as within a matter of the first few hours of "the switch" somebody's digital camera and/or printer and/or ... won't work, and within a few minutes the snot nosed script kiddie who just popped of and calling this same person some sort of name with a whole bunch of z's in it will be "the shot heard round the world" and will send these same folks back into their comfort zone where they know that these same devices will work, there applications will run, and while the security isn't perfect, at least they can call someone on the phone for help that won't first make EVERY attempt in the world to showcase just how smart *they* are and *everybody* else is not. [for example, start here: http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/05/dear_microsoft_thank_you_for_t.html#comment-30965 and work your way down the list]
Oh, and the person they talk to will have a name like Pam, or Dave instead of "Angry_Penguin" or "PZatDiddyYo".
David, aren't you a little shrill here? Especially in response to an imagined response to this post?
I grant you, some people out in the wide Internet are at least equally shrill, but at a certain point it's just paranoid ranting. Relax, it's a big world, it'll be okay.
Bad news for those concerned about Windows security: At the Black Hat security conference last week, hacker managed to crack into the system — and this before it’s even released.
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Solution: Don't use such a malignant, low-grade OS like Windows. Problem solved.
Bad news for those concerned about Windows security: At the Black Hat security conference last week, hacker managed to crack into the system — and this before it’s even released.
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Bad news for those concerned about Windows security: At the Black Hat security conference last week, hacker managed to crack into the system — and this before it’s even released.
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