Government, Business Can Do Better With Our Data

The Washington Post ^ | 6/23/06 | Rob Pegoraro

[steve-b]

We've spent years trying to secure our computers against online identity theft, but the clumsiness or incompetence of Big Government and Big Companies is going to leave us unguarded anyway....

That has nothing to do with tougher penalties for laptop thieves or database hackers (though those wouldn't hurt). It has everything to do with reducing the chances of a successful data theft -- and then limiting the damage when the inevitable mistakes happen....

Stay up to date with security. (Duh.) Install security patches when they're released; more important, use more secure software in the first place. Stop putting Windows 2000 on new computers just because you bought a site license to that operating system way back when; upgrade to XP, which includes far more security fixes than are available for Win 2000. Or switch to Linux or Mac OS X....

If your employees need to access sensitive data out of the office, make them do so through a secure, remote connection -- not by taking their own copy of the file with them....

Keep sensitive files encrypted... Yes, some of this software can be difficult to use. So is most of the junk on the average office machine, and everybody has survived that. (The selection of cryptography software might also be better if the federal government hadn't spent years trying to criminalize a free, open standard for encryption called Pretty Good Privacy. But I digress.)

Store only data that you need. Companies that focus on defensive measures such as file encryption are like drivers who try to stop people from breaking into their cars by upgrading their car alarms, instead of remembering to take the iPod out of the car when they park it....

[steve-b]

LOTS of managers out there need to have Captain Obvious drop by and bonk them over the head with his mighty shield.

[Seruzawa]

Yeah. And don't use freakin Internet Explorer either.

[observer5]

Yeah, perhaps if the millions of IDIOTS could stop buying the Micros*it software that is an operating system from the stone age, we could make some headway on computer securty..... but NO!

[observer5]

I guess there is no limit to the STUPIDITY and SHEEP HERD MENTALITY of modern man!

[P-40]

We've spent years trying to secure our computers against online identity theft

Well....some of us have. I find very few people do all that much to protect themselves or their computers against...anything. I also find very few people are all that reluctant to supply sensitive financial information to whatever web site is asking for it.

[JamesP81]

Yeah, perhaps if the millions of IDIOTS could stop buying the Micros*it software that is an operating system from the stone age, we could make some headway on computer securty..... but NO!

Frankly, it's all about software availability. If all the game makers, multimedia, and other software companies released Linux versions of everything they made, they would probably sweep Windows away. Alas, the software publishers do not do this.

Even to this day, the desktop market is heavily influenced by the entertainment sector. People want DVD movies, music, and games. They learn Windows because all this stuff runs on it. When they get to their work place and new computers are needed, what do they do? They go with what they know.

I would gladly switch to OS X or 64-bit Linux; but none of my software runs on it, at least not without using some dirty hacks.

[JamesP81]

Well, to be fair, I do mess with Linux a lot, but I can't use it exclusively because I haven't been able to hack everything to run on it yet.

C is also one of my favorite programming languages; yet another reason I'd like to switch to Linux if I could get everything to run on it.

[Still Thinking]

Another issue is ease of installation of new things. My Wifi card (Linksys) which works just fine under Windows won't install under Linux using ndiswrapper. There are some known issues with it and the PCMCIA chipset in my laptop so I thought maybe it was a bit much to ask of Linux anyway. So when I say a card at Fry's for $15 based on a different chipset, I snapped it up. Well, when I go to install, it says madwifi-kernel is missing and I should get it from Mandriva club. Nowhere to be found at Mandriva club, so I get it from sourceforge. Navigate to the directory, read the makefile and install docs, and try make. Won't make, says I don't have the kernel source installed. I think I do, but I go and get the latest anyway. Try make again, still doesn't work.

All this in the midst of learning the directory navigation rules (command line prompt not necessarily corresponding to file mangler display). There is a learning curve, and I've worked at various times on a VAX, on CP/M, and on every version of DOgS and Widows known to man. My point is, it ain't exactly like falling off a log.

[Still Thinking]

Well, at least the new one works using the Windows driver with ndiswrapper.

[Terpfen]

I would gladly switch to OS X or 64-bit Linux; but none of my software runs on it, at least not without using some dirty hacks.

Pay very close attention to this year's WWDC. Rumors abound of OS X 10.5 having virtualized OS support.

You may also be VERY interested in this video, which utilizes Parallels on OS X.