[AusNOG] (bad) cyber security and ideas coming out of the woodwork?!

[Kai]

I actually threw in that comment as a typical "Linux fixes everything" comment, I should've added :P at the end of it :)

I use F/OSS where I can but it's not a fix-all, software is written by humans and, generally speaking, any machine is only as secure as the humans who administer it. Notice the theme here? maybe add humans to that filtered list! :P

I wanna know if all these news ideas go ahead exactly who's going to police it, how they're going to police it and where's the money coming from to make it happen? remote access comes to mind but that opens up a whole new box of security and privacy issues.

Hopefully these crazy ideas never get any further than just being ideas, and hopefully whichever Government is in power realises how stupid and unworkable these ideas are and maybe does something useful like asking the right group of people a better way to manage cyber security and the common problem of user stupidity/ignorance -> computer infected with virus/worm/trojan, etc but, that'd make too much sense, and leaves us with freedom, easier to just TELL US what we want and how we'll use it.

"If I want your opinion I'll give it to ya" sorta idea...

Hrmmm, I should shut up before we give this government too many more stupid ideas.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Zane Jarvis" <zane at auscert.org.au>
To: "Kai" <vk6ksj at westnet.com.au>
Cc: ausnog at ausnog.net
Sent: Thursday, 24 June, 2010 12:15:03 PM GMT +09:30 Darwin
Subject: RE: [AusNOG] (bad) cyber security and ideas coming out of the woodwork?!

Kai,

> Govenment would probly solve a lot of problems with viruses and spyware
> if they made it policy to use *nix instead of Windows, especially in
> Govenment offices because a lot of users their don't have a clue either.

If everyone in Australia switches to *NIX (or anything else) then the
criminals will just spend more resources targeting that.  It's a scale of
economy for the criminals, Windows is most popular so they target that!  It's
not about Windows vs *nix.  *nix is just as bad for vulnerabilities as
Windows. More eyes doesn't mean more secure! UnrealIrcd anyone???

Most exploit kits now target third party applications. Adobe Reader/Acrobat,
Adobe Flash, Java etc.  Most of the time these vulnerabilities are in both
Windows and *nix versions. 

Btw, these are my opinions and NOT AusCERTs.

Anyway, each person or organisation has their own preference and the right to
make their choice. 

Regards,
Zane.