Re: Viva le Same! Linux

Subject: Re: Viva le Same! Linux
From: Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 13:27:27 -0700 (PDT)


--- Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de> wrote:

> The crypotology community - which concerns it self with nothing _but_
> security - has long since decided unequivocally that security can only
> be had through complete transparency of the algorithms.
>
> Put another way: If you don't know what it does, you must consider it
> insecure. Linux may or may not be secure; Windows cannot be secure
> unless Microsoft publishes the source code.


Whoa there. Cryptography is **not** synonymous with security. Cryptography is a
tool security folks use to INCREASE the relative secureness of data, systems, and
communications. By cryptography does not equal security.

Furthermore, there is a big difference between an operating system which must do
literally millions of different things and a cryptographic algorithm which has
essentially one function.

Moreover, transparency does not mean security. Transparent code is a double-edged
sword.

1. On one hand everybody can see the inner-workings and is therefore more likely
to spot and repair bugs.

2. On the other hand, everybody can see the inner-workings and is more likely to
spot and **exploit** bugs.

As this is axiomatically true, why then do people find more bugs in Windows - a
closed sourced system?

Well, you can reason from that many conclusions:

1. There are A LOT more Windows boxes in the world.

2. Organizations have financial incentive to find Windows bugs.

3. The open-source community is obsessed with "bringing Windows down" and
therefore spends night and day searching for bugs.

4. Windows has a LOT more features and capabilities and therefore more
bug-opportunity.

5. Windows is compatible with a gargantuan number of systems and applications,
offering more chanced for holes.

In any event, you get the idea. The sum point is, don't confuse encryption or
openess with security. They are not one and the same. Security is a much larger
and more complex issue than any one tool, technology, or business model.

Andrew Plato

Windows can be secured. Very easily. Its just people don't know how and prefer
the propaganda fed to them from the open-source community.

Andrew Plato

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Re: Viva le Same! Linux: From: Jan Henning

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