[SLL] Linux Comes out on top in Workstation Security Contest, apparently...

[Xeno Campanoli]

Lee Colleton wrote:
> Saying that Linux is "unhackable" is misleading. 

I was also concerned that the Linuxes may have been treated lightly 
because they were less interesting as targets.  I saw nothing hinting to 
this explicitly, but it would be interesting to ask the participants. 
One of the biggest criticisms of Linux security is that it doesn't get 
hit because it isn't as interesting to crackers, and wouldn't tend to 
result in as much press to someone succeeding.  I don't think this is 
completely a balanced argument, but I do think it is a legitimate one 
sometimes or to a certain extent, and that it's a healthy reason to not 
rest on ones' laurels.

 > There were other easier
> targets available.

Yes, but it's a matter of organic advertising, if you will.  Linux is 
quickly turning into the long predicted better choice for workstations. 
  As such all the good and bad will soon follow.  I will be happy to see 
the long expected popularity, and the permanent partial downfall of 
Microsoft, and the kind of competition that comes with it that will 
drive both MS and Apple to make there stuff better AND expecially to 
cooperate more with standards.  However all of us are predicting the 
degeneracy that will come with popularity.  Much of what we now have 
that's really good could polarize to being just good in popular areas.
> 
> from CanSecWest<http://www.osnews.com/story/19545/CanSecWest:_Countering_Misinformation/page2/>
> 
>> *7. "Attendees with the ability to crack Linux 'didn't want to put the
>> work into developing the exploit code that would be required to win the
>> contest', according to [an] IDG article<http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080329/tc_pcworld/143962>
>> ."*
>>
> 
> Perhaps a second round is in order which has only different Linux distros.

I hope so, but the problem with that is without including the mainstream 
at least as token comparisons, you don't showcase your argument, though 
you do maintain the quality and avoid some of the popularity 
polarizations aforementioned.

> 
> --Lee
> 
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 10:16 AM, Xeno Campanoli <xcampanoli at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Linux_Unhackable_At_Tippinjg_Point_Contest_15743.html
>> Everybody see this?
>> xc
>> --
>> There is more safety in diversity; more danger in great power.
>> There is love in effort to understand; hatred in refusal to.
>>
> 


-- 
There is more safety in diversity; more danger in great power.
There is love in effort to understand; hatred in refusal to.