Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post

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Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post 1326

Posted by timothy on Sunday August 24, 2003 @07:34PM from the tradeoffs-are-everywhere dept.

Circuit Breaker writes "A Washington Post article says Microsoft Windows is insecure by design. Quote: 'Between the Blaster worm and the Sobig virus, it's been a long two weeks for Windows users. But nobody with a Mac or a Linux PC has had to lose a moment of sleep over these outbreaks -- just like in earlier "malware" epidemics. This is not a coincidence.'"

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Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post

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Ummm... (Score:4, Funny)

by Exitthree ( 646294 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @07:35PM (#6780013) Homepage

But nobody with a Mac or a Linux PC has had to lose a moment of sleep over these outbreaks -- just like in earlier "malware" epidemics.

Except the Mac and Linux users in charge of those systems... ;)

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Unless... (Score:5, Funny)

by Chemical Serenity ( 1324 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @07:36PM (#6780020) Homepage Journal

... you count the *nix administrators who had to scramble to put in antivirus software on the corporate mail server to stem the tide of 50k+ virus mails per day.
On the plus side, if you work as a contractor, it's billable hours. :D GG SoBillable^H^H^H^H^H^H^HSoBig!

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Quick linux security test. (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @07:38PM (#6780033)

To test if your linux box is secure, press alt f2 to open up the run dialog, then type

yes > /dev/mem

.

If nothing happens then you have a reasonably secure linux box.

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Biased report! (Score:3, Funny)

by lakeland ( 218447 ) writes: <lakeland@acm.org> on Sunday August 24, 2003 @07:40PM (#6780052) Homepage

I wonder how much money RedHat slipped the Washington post for that one...? *g*

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Linux users (Score:5, Funny)

by jabbadabbadoo ( 599681 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @07:42PM (#6780069)

"But nobody with a Mac or a Linux PC has had to lose a moment of sleep "
Like a Linux PC owner sleeps anyway....

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Good idea (Score:5, Funny)

by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @07:43PM (#6780076)

Here's a modest proposal: Microsoft should use some of its $49 billion hoard to mail an update CD to anybody who wants one. At $3 a pop (a liberal estimate), it could ship a disc to every human being on Earth -- and still have $30 billion in the bank.

Please Microsoft, use CD-RWs. I already have a wall covered with silver AOL CDs ...

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Re:Corporate Blinders (Score:5, Funny)

by mjmalone ( 677326 ) * writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:02PM (#6780231) Homepage

What is it going to take? Ships sinking? Trains being derailed? Satellites dropping out of orbit?
Major power outages in the northeast!? Entire DMV operations being shutdown!? Massive denial of service attacks cripleing the internet!? E-mail viruses bringing hundred thousand dollar mailservers to their knees!?

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Re:Linux users (Score:5, Funny)

by ceejayoz ( 567949 ) writes: <cj@ceejayoz.com> on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:08PM (#6780267) Homepage Journal

They do sleep, they just sleep alone. ;-) joking, joking...

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Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)

by theCoder ( 23772 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:08PM (#6780275) Homepage Journal

"...you have it easy, you run Linux, stop complaining!"

That's when you snap your suspenders, scratch your beard, and remember why you have that smug look on your face :)

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Re:Ummm... AGAIN, WHY NOT WINDOWS LINUX???? (Score:5, Funny)

by croddy ( 659025 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:14PM (#6780308)

oh yes. they could call it MSUX.

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Re:MS Bashing (Score:5, Funny)

by cduffy ( 652 ) writes: <charles+slashdot@dyfis.net> on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:18PM (#6780330)

There're two issues:

1. There's this bug users didn't patch for

2. The system's default configuration made almost everyone vulnerable being attacked via the bug, even if the user isn't actually making use of the buggy service.

On item [1], yes, there's a really strong argument that it's the user's fault. On item [2], though, it's pretty damn clearly the vendor's negligence.

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Re:Bad design 4 Security - Bad 4 Servicing ... (Score:5, Funny)

by Politburo ( 640618 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:34PM (#6780423)

Lord, give me the strength to forgive those who do not know what they are doing ....

Can he give you the strength to forgive yourself?

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Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)

by Geek of Tech ( 678002 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:35PM (#6780433) Homepage Journal

And people wonder why techies are grumpy...
Well, yeah, because you know we all make so much money...
Yeah.....

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Re:If you "trademark" your mail addy... (Score:5, Funny)

by Geek of Tech ( 678002 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @08:39PM (#6780467) Homepage Journal

I am just trying to figure out how to strike a balance between limiting my exposure to liability in this networked world (because everyone is happy to sue these days) and still participating in society in normal ways.
Uh, hate to tell you, but unless you're sueing somebody you're not participating in society in normal ways.

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Hey.... (Score:3, Funny)

by Theatetus ( 521747 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @09:10PM (#6780632) Journal

All I got was weird colors on my screen...
But my friend said to patch it by doing

yes > /boot/bzImage

Sure hope that works....

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Re:Linux users (Score:3, Funny)

by ATMAvatar ( 648864 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @09:15PM (#6780654) Journal

Better to sleep alone than to get W32.STD :o

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Re:New sig file... (Score:5, Funny)

by E_elven ( 600520 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @09:24PM (#6780710) Journal

Of course, the next big trojan (it's supposedly to be called DamnTiny.Bill) will include something like that.

From: BillG@ms.org
Subject: I hate you, b1tch!
Text:
It was joke. Ahaha.
Take a look at this. Finest Klatchian
waterbeetle clock, it's really quite
humorous.

*****
ALL MY EMAIL IS FOLLOWED BY THIS NOTICE.
IF IT IS NOT PRESENT, BE AWARE THE MAIL
IS NOT FROM ME AND MAY BE A VIRUS!
*****

Attachment: fkwbc34.vbs

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In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

by swtaarrs ( 640506 ) writes: <swtaarrs&comcast,net> on Sunday August 24, 2003 @09:39PM (#6780785)

It has been recently discovered that the Pope is Catholic. Who knew?!

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Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)

by SillySlashdotName ( 466702 ) writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @10:03PM (#6780900)

As well as bashful, sleepy, sneezy, dopey,...

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In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

by MegaFur ( 79453 ) writes: <.moc.nzz.ymok. .ta. .0dryw.> on Sunday August 24, 2003 @11:18PM (#6781303) Journal

Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post

In other news, really, really smart scientists that spent a lot of grant money determined that: living people breath (air), fish generally live in water, Battlefield Earth was a mindwitheringly bad movie, and cutting down a tree with a herring is inherently impractical.

Windows Insecure By Design? a world of ***!!DUH!!*** It's nice to see the general public starting to wake up to this fact. Expect to see the standard ports (135, 445, etc) closed when Longhorn comes out... maybe And even then, I doubt MS will make any other changes. Or, if they do, they'll open up five or six more ports in the process. :-P Not that I'm bitter... oh no.

Let's never forget the conversation between a fictional Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in "Pirates of Silicon Valley":
fictional Steve Jobs: We're better than you are. We have better stuff.
fictional Bill Gates: You don't get it, Steve--that doesn't matter!

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Re:I have a coworker who kept saying it was hardwa (Score:5, Funny)

by dtfinch ( 661405 ) * writes: on Sunday August 24, 2003 @11:29PM (#6781363) Journal

Some of us developers working for smaller businesses need to handle EVERYTHING.

"Hey, Dave, make our fundamentally different, colocated e-commerce sites securely share all their data amongst each other and seemlessly integrate it with this new proprietary MRP solution. Upgrade our computers when we're not using them. Find a legal way to install this one copy of Office onto all these computers. Make our computers faster and better. Don't touch my computer. Upgrade our Norton Antivirus server and all our clients. None of us want login passwords, but we do want security. This one mid-90's era server ought to be enough for all our needs. We want video conferencing on all our sites. We don't want to buy anything."

I do almost as much IT support as I do development.

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Complete with ad for "Windows 2003 Server." (Score:5, Funny)

by spoot ( 104183 ) writes: on Monday August 25, 2003 @12:34AM (#6781606) Homepage

I thought it was amusing when I surfed over to the Post to read the article there was an ad for "Windows 2003 Server" on the page. I had to take a screen shot. If you want it it's here --> http://johnford.net/images/windows_ad01.jpg [johnford.net]

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This story is nice (Score:5, Funny)

by inkswamp ( 233692 ) writes: on Monday August 25, 2003 @03:47AM (#6782300)

So Windows is insecure by design, huh?
It's so nice to see Microsoft finally get something right.

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Re:Dorms the breeding grounds?? (Score:2, Funny)

by andrewski ( 113600 ) writes: on Monday August 25, 2003 @03:52AM (#6782314) Homepage

God, you should give your kid some oregano and tell him to make his tuition by selling it as grass. Sounds like these kids aren't just dumb enough to smoke it, they're dumb enough to get really high in the process!

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Re:Total Windows XP updates (Score:3, Funny)

by Brendan Byrd ( 105387 ) writes: <SineSwiper-slash ... esonatorSoft.org> on Monday August 25, 2003 @11:22AM (#6784256) Homepage Journal

Read the rest of this comment...

That, in and of itself, is funny.

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Re:Ummm... (Score:2, Funny)

by pmz ( 462998 ) writes: on Monday August 25, 2003 @02:08PM (#6785842) Homepage

Well, yeah, because you know we all make so much money...

I am literally a millionaire and own loads of property in New York. However, I simply don't know why the bank teller keeps saying, "Sir, Parker Brothers is not a part of the U.S. Treasury, and we cannot exchange this money for you." This liquidity problem is really keeping me from living the lifestyle I worked so hard for. The world is so unfair.

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Re:Ummm... (Score:2, Funny)

by bhtooefr ( 649901 ) writes: <[gro.rfeoothb] [ta] [rfeoothb]> on Monday August 25, 2003 @06:57PM (#6788868) Homepage Journal

I can just imagine that:

"Outlook Express will have automatically running scripts!"

"DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!"

"This is a COOL feature!"

"DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!"

"But won't automatically running scripts will be used for virus transmissions?"

*silence*

Well, you did say it was in a room of 400 developers! Did you not?

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Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post 1326

Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post More Login

Windows Is 'Insecure By Design,' Says Washington Post

Ummm... (Score:4, Funny)

Unless... (Score:5, Funny)

Quick linux security test. (Score:5, Funny)

Biased report! (Score:3, Funny)

Linux users (Score:5, Funny)

Good idea (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Corporate Blinders (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Linux users (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Ummm... AGAIN, WHY NOT WINDOWS LINUX???? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:MS Bashing (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Bad design 4 Security - Bad 4 Servicing ... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:If you "trademark" your mail addy... (Score:5, Funny)

Hey.... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Linux users (Score:3, Funny)

Re:New sig file... (Score:5, Funny)

In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)

In other news... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:I have a coworker who kept saying it was hardwa (Score:5, Funny)

Complete with ad for "Windows 2003 Server." (Score:5, Funny)

This story is nice (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Dorms the breeding grounds?? (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Total Windows XP updates (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Ummm... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Ummm... (Score:2, Funny)

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