[66660] in North American Network Operators' Group
Diversity as defense
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sgorman1@gmu.edu)
Mon Jan 19 15:36:18 2004
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 15:35:22 -0500
From: sgorman1@gmu.edu
To: nanog@merit.edu
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
We've been seeing a bit of media attention of late to diversity as a technique to make networks more secure:
http://news.com.com/2009-7349_3-5140971.html?tag=nefd_lede
The usual suspect is Microsoft with 97% of OS's, but Cisco's 86% of the router market has been cited as well as SNMP vulnerabilities of two years ago. The diversity, monoculture and agricutlure analogy makes nice press, but how realistic is diversity as a defense. Is cost the biggest hurdle or limited avaiability of competitive products, or simply no bang for the buck by diversifying. We've run some simulations testing the effects of different levels of diversity, but wanted some feedback on feasibility.
http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0401017
Any comments, feedback or discussion would be greatly appreciated.
best,
sean
