The InfoSec Blog

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/virtualization/when-organizations-put-a-lot-of-eggs-in-one-basket-desktop-side-of-the-story/2103?tag=nl.e539

This is a chicken-little story.

We’ve been putting many computer eggs in one hardware basket for a long, long time.
What do you think mainframes running MVS and VM/CMS were?
What were things like air traffic control?

The ‘desktop’ is a fuzz concept that gets confused with a GUI.
Those mainframes – think airline ticket and reservation – could handle many hundreds of remote terminals, keeping them updated.

What’s a dumb terminal if not the ultimate in ‘thin clients’? Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Report-Google-phasing-out-internal-use-of-Microsoft-Windows-1012679.html

“According to a report in the Financial Times, Google are phasing
out the use of Microsoft‘s Windows within the company because of
security concerns. Citing several Google employees, the FT report
reports that new hires are offered the option of using Apple Mac
systems or PCs running Linux. The move is believed to be related to a
directive issued after Google’s Chinese operations were attacked in
January. In that attack, Chinese hackers took advantage of
vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer on a Windows PC used by a Google
employee and from there gained deeper access to Google’s single sign
on service.

Security as a business decision?
Don’t make me laugh!
Look at what precedence they’ve shown!
Look at Microsoft’s attitude and approach to security (no matter how flawed the end result) and compare it with the public stance Google has taken.

No, this is about Business Politics.
Microsoft has been ‘staggering’ this last decade and now Apple is on the ascendency and the real battle will no longer be in the PC world but in the consumer world with embedded systems.
On the surface this will be Android vs Apple, but since embedded Linux goes so much further, embedded in TVs, GPS units, traffic light controllers, and perhaps it will even replace UNIX in telephone
exchanges (ha-ha-ha!) there’s more potential.
(Freudian slip: I just wrote portential.)

Yes, Microsoft hasn’t been asleep in the embedded market, or the phone/PDA market, but compared to Linux its a resource hog. To top that, its also proprietary, so vendors rely on Microsoft for the porting to new processor/hardware and for support. Linux/Android doesn’t have that limitation. And there are plenty of ‘kiddies’ eager to play with Android (source) on a new toy.

No, this isn’t a security issue, its a business and political issue.
If Google is pushing its range of Android products then it doesn’t want to have people – journalists, investors, bloggers – saying “yes, but you USE Windows even though you preach Linux”.

Or perhaps you though Google was taking the “High Moral Ground”?
No, I think they are taking the advice of Sun T’Zu and applying it to business

“For them to perceive the advantage of defeating the enemy, they must
also have their rewards.”

Betcha Google will be supplying Android phones/slates/pads to its workers.

“He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious.”

Look at that ZDNet article and think about the timing of Google’s announcement.

“It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct
espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them
instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used.”

Think about that one.

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

And look how Android is spreading.
Balmer said Linux was a virus – yes a “meme”.

“Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.”

Indeed. Microsoft has proclaimed a commitment to “security”. Bill Gates said so. That is their “strategy”. But Google is working on the fact that Microsoft products still have security flaws. Regardless of the reality, that is “voice” of this announcement. They are saying that Microsoft’s strategy isn’t working. They are attacking it in the minds of the consumers.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Mac OS X and Linux are no magic security bullet for Google (arstechnica.com)
• Google to ban Microsoft Windows: report (cbc.ca)
• Google bans Microsoft Windows over security concerns: report (business.financialpost.com)
• Microsoft counters report of Google’s dumping Windows (infoworld.com)
• Silicon Alley Insider: Google Dumps Microsoft Windows Company-Wide — Blames Windows For China Hacking Attack (businessinsider.com)
• Who Needs Windows? Google Starts Putting Their Computers Where Their Mouth Is (techcrunch.com)
• ‘Quit Microsoft’ Day and ‘Quit Apple’ Day? (techrights.org)
• Google vs. Microsoft: It’s On! (fool.com)
• Google bans Microsoft Windows on office computers (telegraph.co.uk)
• Google is phasing out the internal use of Windows (joostteam.com)

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/it_end_road_live_cds

No. I don’t think so!

The price of recordable DVDs is now under $0.22 each That’s roughly 60 times cheaper than the current price for equivalent-size pen drives and more than 25 times the cost of the cheapest pen drives now being sold.  And at most trade shows even the more expensive form, the credit card/business card format is being handed out like candy.
Yes, USB sticks are being handed out too, but not so eagerly.

Until pendrives can get Blank-DVD-level cheap — maybe inevitable, but not at least for five years or so — it will be cheaper to pass around bootable DVD media than bootable pen drives.   Right now the USB-as-demo works fine so long as you hang around for the demo but is useless for a “try it on your own time” leave-behind (unless you like spending that kind of money for leave-behind, which may work for a reseller but not volunteer advocates).

All media is on a price curve. Its not the price of blank CDs/DVDs that counts, its that they can be printed. Yes, I can download and burn onto a blank, but if I’m in business I’ll get 10,000 printed and silk screened, and because of the way printing works the set-up is amortized over volume and that can never be approached by pen drives.

This was the same economics that meant a cassette tape album was often more expensive than a vinyl one and the CD was even cheaper!

You know all this … But its the price CURVES that are interesting. Blank CDs/DVDs are comparable to blank pen drives, so the price curves CAN be compared. CDs are ahead (in time) and the question is will their price bottom out as the cost of memory falls?

The falling cost of system memory makes the slow speed of LiveCD irrelevant. The $2,000 high end laptop of three years ago now costs under $700 and has 3G or 4G of memory rather then 1/2G. The compressed file system is loaded into memory and the dual (quad?) core CPU running 50% faster (3GHz rather than 2GHz) is so fast that this actually beats out installing on the hard drive!

No, the LiveCD isn’t going away any time soon!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Is the CD Dead? (lockergnome.com)
• Ode to a Fallen Bro of a Product: The CD Binder (hipsterrunoff.com)