Linked by Igor Ljubuncic on Mon 21st Jun 2010 09:35 UTC
I've bored the readers of my personal website to death with two rather prosaic articles debating the Linux security model, in direct relation to Windows and associated claims of wondrous infections and lacks thereof. However, I haven't yet discussed even a single program that you can use on your Linux machine to gauge your security. For my inaugural article for OSNews, I'll leave the conceptual stuff behind, and focus on specific vectors of security, within the world of reason and moderation that I've created and show you how you can bolster a healthy strategy with some tactical polish, namely software.
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Member since:2010-06-09
Member since:2007-03-26
So Windows 7 doesn't give the default user accounts full administration rights?
Windows has come a long long way, there's no denying that. And I'm not disputing that security is an ongoing battle in which users shouldn't get complacent regardless of the OS they run.
I just don't see the point in lying by saying all OSs are equally secure by default. The simple fact is some OSs do ship with better defaults. However, and as I've already stated, none of that really makes much difference if you stick an experienced idiot in front of the keyboard.
Member since:2006-06-21
They aren't more secure than Windows anymore. At one time, sure. Now? No.
Ah, but what do you mean by "Windows" and "Linux"? If you mean an install with just the OS and an interface, let's assume you're right. Windows 7 has made great strides into closing remote vulnerabilities and has taken protections such as ASLR, sandboxing IE etc. Remote breaking into Windows 7 through IE8 has been called one of the biggest modern challenges in security.
But a working PC also contains a large number of applications. This is where the cookie crumbles.
The Windows applications come in huge numbers, they are mostly closed source and they are not updated in a centralized manner. Plus, Windows users consider it normal to download stuff off any website they run into, not to mention downloading and running dubious cracks and keygens. What's more, they've become complacent about having malware in their machine.
Contrast this with Linux apps which are fewer, mostly open sourced, come 99% from trusted repositories, the update system is centralized and automated, and there's usually no need to go and install cracks. And a Linux user who finds a single piece of malware on their machine will be absolutely horrified.
Basically, the Windows userland is a security nightmare.
Member since:2007-02-17
"May I remind you that I stated "more secure defaults than Windows" and not that "Linux's defaults are perfect" 
They aren't more secure than Windows anymore. At one time, sure. Now? No. " Depends on how you define it. Windows now is certainly more secure than Windows of the past, but nevertheless the actual infection rate of Windows systems is still vastly more than infection rates of any other system.
It matters not at all to the end user (whose system gets infected) if this is "unfair" comparison, or if it is due to the fact that there is vastly more security threats against Windows. The practical outcome is still that if you run a Windows system, it is far more likely to get infected.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
"The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce NetBSD 6.1, the first feature update of the NetBSD 6 release branch. It represents a selected subset of fixes deemed important for security or stability reasons, as well as new features and enhancements. Please note that all fixes in the prior security/bugfix updates (NetBSD 6.0.1 and 6.0.2) are also in 6.1."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:06 UTC
"At the end of a week in which Electronic Arts confirmed it wasn't developing a thing for the Wii U, one of the software engineers in EA Sports' Canada studio, in a series of since-deleted tweets, disparaged the console as 'crap' and suggested Nintendo should give up on hardware altogether. 'The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360. Poor online/store. Weird tablet', tweeted Bob Summerwill, listed as a senior software engineer at EA Canada, in a reply to a tweet posting a link about EA's no-Wii U news. 'Nintendo are walking dead at this point'." The Wii U is turning into the 21st century's Virtual Boy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 7:37 UTC
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Linked by fran on 05/18/13 1:38 UTC
Appfour added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."More News »
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Member since:
2007-03-26
And may I remind people that Linux security features are not even turned up to full blast on default installations. It's this good out of the box but it's not even trying. There's room for increasing Linux security two-fold or more. Consider:
* mandatory AppArmor-based software whitelisting;
* mandatory separate /home and /tmp partitions with noexec,nodev,nosuid;
* restricting software installation to official repositories and their mirrors and denying direct install of debs/rpms/install kits by default;
* integrating and shipping default kernels that feature better ASLR and NX bit support. "
May I remind you that I stated "more secure defaults than Windows" and not that "Linux's defaults are perfect"