[4320] in WWW Security List Archive
UNIX less secure than Win95? (was Re: Sceptic about (Funds ...)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jay Heiser)
Mon Feb 10 12:30:48 1997
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 1997 10:10:39 -0500
From: Jay Heiser <Jay@homecom.com>
Reply-To: jay@homecom.com
To: www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
Errors-To: owner-www-security@ns2.rutgers.edu
BVE wrote:
> make systems secure on the net. The PC security model is now entirely
> inadequate.
>
> I wholeheartedly agree with this point. Win 3.1, and Win 95, need to be thrown
> out. Basic user security, which we've had in other computer systems for over
> 30 years now, needs to come to the desktop.
Whoah! I hope I'm not quoting you out of context. Security issues
rarely have
a higher priority than business issues. Those two operating systems are
way too
useful to be thrown out. Its going to be impossible for those two
operating
environments to go away until sometime well after all necessary personal
productivity apps have moved to a newer environment -- for better or
worse, that
looks like Win32 (your choice of flavors).
Would you be happy with NT? Whatever its relative degree of
'secureness', I'm going
to go out a limb and say that its easier for an inexperienced user to
cause damage
with UNIX than with NT. But even though its easier to use, NT still
requires an understanding
of computing that Win95 does not.
I could easily run UNIX at home, but its a lousy personal productivity
environment.
I couldn't easily run Quicken, MS-Word, my scanner, and my tax prep
software. It
might be more secure than the Win95 I'm using now, but I couldn't do
anything,
so I might as well save my money and use my typewriter. ;-)
Let's avoid religious wars about which operating system is 'best' (or
even meaningless
debate about whether Win95 is an operating system). No one can make
that determination
without doing requirements analysis up front. For most people, Win95 is
still the
best choice. Its easy for us on this list to prophesize about all
manner of horrible
damage accruing from internetworked Win95 -- some of which will occur
but most of which
will not. History indicates to me that personal operating systems will
change in an
evolutionary way with kludgey add-ons when necessary.
BTW, which operating system is sucessfully attacked more often over the
net,
UNIX, NT or Win95? So far, its been UNIX, hasn't it? Couldn't we
make a case
that UNIX is less secure than Win95? Is there a 4th choice to consider?
--
Jay Heiser, 703-610-6846, jay@homecom.com
Homecom Internet Security Services
http://www.homecom.com/services/hiss
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