The ELEPHANT in room

[GreyGeek]

TheRegister collected comments from UK residents about their Win7 installation experiences.

I read the article and the comments and it looks like a pi**ing contest between Windows fanbois and us Penguins.

The question NO ONE has asked or answered yet is:

How long will it take the bad guys to create a 1 million Win7 zombie bot farm?

It took them EIGHT MONTHS to create a mere 700 Liinux zombie bot farm.

If, within the next two or three months we began seeing 100,000 Win7 zombie bot farms, or more, then Win7 is toast, because that would mean that Microsoft still hasn't got a handle on security, and blaming Semantec or other AV houses isn't going to fly any more.

A recent article by a IT security analyst recommended against using Windows to access bank accounts because VISTA, the "most secure Windows ever" turned out to be as pourous as XP was, if not more so. If I were in the stock market I'd be selling Microsoft short right now because I don't believe that Microsoft has made any significant improvements in security with Win7, unless they secretly used a BSD kernel to create Win7.

[dibl]

Re: The ELEPHANT in room

Verrrrrrry interesting. This will definitely bear watching.

Thanks, GG!

[Telengard]

Re: The ELEPHANT in room

If I were in the stock market I'd be selling Microsoft short right now because I don't believe that Microsoft has made any significant improvements in security with Win7, unless they secretly used a BSD kernel to create Win7.

Investing based on emotion is almost always a bad idea.

No doubt, Windows 7 will face its share of challenges. More and more people, businesses, and governments are entrusting more and more valuable data to Microsoft as time goes by, so the stakes are ever increasing. I'm glad I can finally choose to not use Windows.

What really scares me is the kind of draconian laws, regulations, and restrictions will come in the future to reign in the malicious crackers in the future. I am starting to worry that our Internet may not always be as free as it is today.

[GreyGeek]

Re: The ELEPHANT in room

If I were in the stock market I'd be selling Microsoft short right now because I don't believe that Microsoft has made any significant improvements in security with Win7, unless they secretly used a BSD kernel to create Win7.

Investing based on emotion is almost always a bad idea.

No emotion is involved. Microsoft's track record in security has enough data to demonstrate that they do not understand security, or if they do they don't care. The real question is "What is Win7 built upon?" IF it is XP with lipstick or VISTA SP3 then the world WILL see giant Win7 bot farms within three months, that will create the cusp on which Microsoft will slide to a much lower market share.

No doubt, Windows 7 will face its share of challenges. More and more people, businesses, and governments are entrusting more and more valuable data to Microsoft as time goes by, so the stakes are ever increasing. I'm glad I can finally choose to not use Windows.

When IT analysts who for a long time have recommended Windows began recommending Linux or Apple for online banking people sit up and take notice. For every person whose bank account is pilfered or credit is destroyed by using Windows to do onliine banking OR shopping, 10 or more of their friends learn that Windows was the reason and they look to Apple or Linux.

What really scares me is the kind of draconian laws, regulations, and restrictions will come in the future to reign in the malicious crackers in the future. I am starting to worry that our Internet may not always be as free as it is today.

The hijacking of the Internet by corporations, and their bribing of Congress ("campaign donations") to pass laws which allow them to create an artificial scarcity of bandwidth so they can continue to maximize their profits from Copper wire technology (after they pocketed the $200 BILLION Congress gave them 15 years ago to install fiber optic around the country) swamps any threat by malicious crackers. After all, 99.9999+% of the crackers DEPEND upon the weakness of only ONE OS, Windows. The Cable and Telcoms are trying to shape traffic so they can charge more for faster service and assign the rest to the digital slums. Instead of allowing IPv6 to increase the number of folks on the Internet (and give everyone more bandwidth if fiber optic were the standard) they want to sell access to the extra bits as a way of creating fast and slow lanes or even toll roads on their old Copper wire.

I pay $72/m for 10Mb/S bandwidth with a guarantee of no capping. In countries with fiber optics its less than $40 for 40Gb/s.

Greed and corruption -- the hallmark of modern corporations. They've taken the Robber Baron technology of the 19th and 20th century and turned it into an art form.

[MoonRise]

Re: The ELEPHANT in room

What really scares me is the kind of draconian laws, regulations, and restrictions will come in the future to reign in the malicious crackers in the future. I am starting to worry that our Internet may not always be as free as it is today.

Couldn't agree more. And GG's response to this I agree with as well.