[Coco] Re: OS Vulnerabilities

[David Hazelton]

James Ross wrote:
>>>John E. Malmberg wrote:
> 
> 

>>That just means that the Administrator is not very smart about security.
> 
> 
> By Administrator you mean "The dude using his Linux box at home".  Or
> the new hire in the IT department.  
Don't forget that seasoned Administrator.  I have seen some poor to no 
security by administrators that should have known better.  I also have 
seen IT departments punch holes in the security to get some poorly 
designed software to work.

> 
> That is right … more than likely they do not have a PhD in computer
> science or computer security.  I've been in computers, well, since
> that this is CoCo group, let's see ... some  23 years and counting. I
> am still a novice, when it comes to security.  I'm learning, but I
> know nothing.
> 
> 
>>There is almost no way to use technology to protect against social 
>>engineering.
> 
> 
> I would say that Banks are doing a good job at it.

yea, but at the cost of ATM usage fees, checking accounts that cost 
money and savings accounts that earn less than inflation interest rates  :)
> 
> 
>>My Operating System in use on this computer is OpenVMS.  It has been out 
>>there since the 1970's and is still being actively developed.  I am
>>using Mozilla as a news reader and a web browser.
>>
>>So it qualifies as a modern OS.
> 
> 
> Would you recommend it to My Mom or Dad, or my 3 brothers-in-law's and
> one brother?  All who use computers on daily basis but have no idea
> about the technical details of what can be harmful to their computer?
> Nor would I expect them to.

Yea, If they can afford an Alpha-based Computer.  (Or does OpenVMS run 
on mips too?)  Oh-yea does your Mom or Dad need 64 bit processing to do 
their taxes and write e-mail...  I think an Althon 64 with Windows XP 
for 64-bit systems should do your family nicely.
> 
>>But at some point, you have to have trusted software that runs in a 
>>privilege context.  There is no way around that.
> 

Ditto

> There is no doubt about that.  Especially the OS.  And that is the
> crux of the matter. The OS should protect you from the rest. 
> 
> JR
> 
> 
> 
> 

~David Hazelton