Re: Security rankings

From: Galen (galennews_at_gmail.com)
Date: 04/13/05 

Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 17:06:30 -0400

In news:l9b7e.38855$Xs.14477@fed1read03,
Imhotep <NoSpam@nothanks.net> had this to say:

 My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

> Any so called study, sponsored by the
> party being evaluated against it's competitors is called advertising.
> It is a commercial...I would never trust a so called study by any
> compant that did this. I do not care who they are (Ford, Mazda, Ciso,
> Red Hat or Microsoft).

They provide the methodology used for replication on your own. That being
said the findings may be skewed by funding though the company is reputable
so I doubt that very much. To turn a blind eye to the results due to the
funding (instead of researching to see that you can use the same methods and
get the same results) is more inept than anything else I've found in this
thread.

I personally don't care where valid information comes from provided it's
just that, valid. On the other hand there's a link to Google in my original
post with many other researchers posting similar findings. Finally, my
contest is not that there's any one specific secure operating system but
rather that the security premise is that of the user/admin's ability to
maintain a clean system and be observant enough to thwart problems and keen
enough to instill policies to deflect the known threats that are already
known.

As an aside I'm one of the few people on the planet who's converted from
*NIX to the Windows environment. The easiest answer to give you as to my
reasoning is that it's simpler and this simplicity also applies to security.
It is far easier to diagnose, repair, and find fixes for the Windows
environment (for me at least) when my original policy needs modification
than to do the same thing from within the *NIX OSes. The software available,
the fact that it's NOT OpenSource, and the need for Microsoft to maintain a
professional standpoint (with recent emphasis on security) has made the
Windows OSes valid in all spheres of computing.

Don't get me wrong. *NIX has it's place among gurus and shops who can't
afford professional software with constant upgrades and research funded by
the largest software manufacturing company on the globe. To turn a blind eye
and state that the OS is inherently more secure is a falicy, more so when
there's people who know far more than you or I who have tested and found
these same findings. I don't have a problem with the Jehovah's Witnesses but
a large population of the *NIX users are a lot like them. Me, I'm not the
least bit biased. I use what works for me and for my clients I use what
works for them. I just feel that for each point there's a counterpoint and
that each arguement often has two legitimate sides.

I use, at home, Microsoft Windows with the exception of a couple of Mandrake
boxes and a Mac G4 that was given to me, but I'm not going to thump my
Windows Manual and claim that it's the best. I'm going to point to
alternative sources for additional information and allow the end-user to
make the choice on their own and when they've made their choices I'm going
to try to give them everything that I can to ensure that they're aware
enough to protect their systems from intrusion and malware regardless of
their choice and in all cases I'm going to recommend a steady policy,
implimented regularly, for updates of all software installed on that system
and regular research to make them aware of the latest threats for their
choice of operating system and software.

Galen 

-- 
Signature changed for a moment of silence.
Rest well Alex and we'll see you on the other side.

Relevant Pages

  • [Full-Disclosure] Re: MS-02-052 + blackholing MS
    ... > with an eye towards security, I look at the long-term track record of ... windows server products can be locked down. ... > free *nix equivalent - FreeBSD, ... They reboot their 200 Win servers every night to make ...
    (Full-Disclosure)
  • RE: CEH training
    ... Windows are simply ported over from the *nix world. ... CISO, Security and Infrastructure Services ... Subject: CEH training ...
    (Pen-Test)
  • RE: [Full-Disclosure] M$ Getting Better?
    ... I worked on *nix before I started on anything from MS. ... speak *nix in meetings just like I don't say I can speak Windows API. ... My issue with this list isn't that people are about security, ... Could I secure a *nix system? ...
    (Full-Disclosure)
  • Re: Windows Is More Secure Than Linux (the rubbish *nix)
    ... Windows was originally a standalone desktop product. ... From a security viewpoint, *nix has always had to bolt ... > The total number of vulnerabilities in an operating system (however ...
    (comp.security.misc)
  • Win XP Security Flaws?
    ... Our company is integrating to Windows XP, ... security with XP? ... to prove my findings. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.security_admin)
Quantcast