Then again this text is straight if you look sideways at it.
So brotherred made a dent about a story which I stole the headline of this blogpost from. Er, actually used in a humourous way that is covered under Fair Use! Now I completely disagree with half the article, and think is he is probably being disingenuous with the other half to make people think he means something when he is carefully phrasing it a different way (either that or he is a corporate douchebag, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying he is smart!).
So what does his article say? I’ll skim through the main points (i.e. as many points as I can do before I have to stop before my blood pressure ends up higher then a giraffe’s)
There’s been some coverage overnight about the security of Windows and whether or not one particular company is reducing its use of Windows. We thought this was a good opportunity to set the record straight.
The linked article talks about Google ditching Microsoft. See Microsoft, I don’t mind saying Microsoft when I am not a major fan of Microsoft. I even say that I have used Microsoft products in my entire career at work (so you could even argue I make my income through Microsoft products). Anyhoo, lets move on. I have no problem ‘setting the record straight’ when it needs to be.
There is some irony here that is hard to overlook. For starters, check out this story from Mashable a few months ago where it was reported that Yale University had halted their move to Gmail (and their move to Google’s Google Apps for Education package) citing both security and privacy concerns.
Except it doesn’t. It says:
For now, ITS will gather more input from the community on the issue before either moving forward with the plan or potentially shelving it
Note it says delayed and not halted. But Brandon LeBlanc says halted, which has much larger connotations then just delayed. Even if they decided not to, does this have anything to do with Microsoft being insecure (or not)? This is about how Google sends your data around the world to whatever data centre has space and that being a concern. Interestingly enough there was not talk of them moving from Microsoft Outlook to Google. Yale are currently using some other thing called Horde Webmail. One wonders why they are not using these wonderful secure Microsoft systems. I mean they would get the discount for educational use so the licenses would be pretty darn cheap, and a mail server is a mail server so it shouldn’t be that much difference in cost for that so… why aren’t they using Outlook? That isn’t relevant to this story though, but I would suspect it could be from the security of it…
The Financial Times article states that:
Windows is known for being more vulnerable to attacks by hackers and more susceptible to computer viruses than other operating systems.
The facts don’t support the assertion.
When it comes to security, even hackers admit we’re doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it’s not just the hackers; third party influentials and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others.
Now let me use an analogy. I have a car that I used to always leave unlocked with the keys in. Now I’m just leaving it unlocked and most of the time I remove the keys. The local car thieves say I’m doing a better job of making my car more secure.
Actually I was a little disingenuous there myself – I removed the words than anyone else from the sentence changing the meaning. If you read the article, it’s just one hacker, and he says Microsoft have a better process set up then people like apple. Not really the same thing. Processes don’t stop things like this they make it less likely. If my process was to make sure I removed my keys from the car and locked it and had no visible items it would reduce the chances of my car being broken into or stolen, but if I don’t follow the process and still leave it unlocked then having the process doesn’t fix it. As for the second part of the paragraph, Microsoft has much bigger pockets so I would hope that their focus and investment would continue to surpass others.
The article only mentions Microsoft in one sentence that says:
Microsoft has also been a valuable partner as both a model for SDL and also as a sounding board for Cisco as we developed and adapted their concepts to meet the unique attributes of our development environment and needs.
How exactly does that mean that Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others?
The final bit says:
An article today by InfoWorld discusses how Macs are under attack by high-risk malware – the article goes on to ask if this is a future sign of things to come for Apple and security. Microsoft makes the security of our customers a huge priority. Here are some examples of the things we are focused on to help make our customers more secure:
- We ship software and security updates to our customers as soon as possible through Windows Update and Microsoft Update to keep our customers safe.
- We highly recommend our customers enable Automatic Update to ensure they are protected from attacks.
- With Windows 7, we added improvements to BitLocker for disc encryption (we also introduced BitLocker-to-Go for external USB devices), and added enhancements to the built in Windows Firewall for better protection.
- Windows 7 has Parental Controls built in that can be combined with Windows Live Family Safety to create a safer experience on the PC for children.
- Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8 which includes SmartScreen Filter which has proven its success time and time again.
For more on Microsoft and our investment in security, I suggest reading the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle Blog.
And Windows 7 also uses Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) as well by randomizing data in memory.
The inforworld article subheading says High-risk OSX/OpinionSpy, a variant of Windows malware, may be a sign of future insecurity for Apple. So it was Windows malware first, and also:
Under the guise of a “market research program,” the spyware — a variant of malware that’s existed for Windows since 2008 — is designed to collect a wealth of data on accessible local and network volumes, then send it off to its servers for likely unsavory uses. That data, according to Intego, may include user names, passwords, credit card numbers, Web browser bookmarks, and history.
So it’s a trojan. Hate to say this but going back to my car. Even if I lock it if I give the keys to someone who says he’s a good guy means he can take it. Again though, this is just comparing Microsoft to Apple, and ignores Linux entirely!
The list of things Microsoft are now doing are a good thing. I will freely admit Microsoft is doing much better then they used to, and they are focusing on security. But that doesn’t mean they are now the best which is what Brandon LeBlanc is trying to suggest. I will also admit that, at least with the little I have played with Windows 7, it is the best version of Windows I think they have made so far. Then again, a dog turd could be the best dog turd that dog has ever made, but it’s still a dog turd! I wouldn’t go that far though, Microsoft Windows (almost all versions) have given me my career my entire life, so whilst I may hate them and run Linux at home, my life would be a lot different without them.
In short, I think that:
- Windows security sucks. Putting usability over security will do that. You can have both, but you have to design that in from the ground up, which Microsoft didn’t do.
- Microsoft is getting much better then they were. But need to completely start over to get it up to the Linux standards.
- No matter how good your operating system is, or how strong your processes are, dumb users will break it. This works for Linux too – if I have root access and run rm -rf / then that box is gone.
- These articles are pulling some facts out to try to prove that Microsoft is great, but it comes under the standard FUD.
- I have spent too long on this article so need to stop it. Now.
