A recent blog posting by a vendor of security software came out against a Micros
ID: 3800967 • Letter: A
Question
A recent blog posting by a vendor of security software came out against a Microsoft product that could be distributed to all Windows users. The edited blog said in part:
Monocultures are a hacker's paradise. If pushing [Microsoft's product to all users] is very successful it will end up creating a monoculture of hundreds of millions of users having the same anti-virus product. Right now hackers have to worry about bypassing multiple anti-virus products and protection layers every time they release a new piece of malware. By having to bypass only one product makes the attacker's life so much easier. This alone will allow attackers to push more new malware that bypasses it exclusively and infect many more users with every new variant ... potentially discovering vulnerabilities that could cause infections in tens of millions of PCs with a single attack. Monoculture in Operating Systems is in and by itself bad. Monoculture in security is a very bad thing.
After reading an excerpt about the evils of monocultures, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Is it bad (insecure) to have a single software product that the majority of users install? Does software diversity create security?
Explanation / Answer
yes i agree with the view of security software vendor,because now-a-days people are more fascinated towards hacking which inturn is seperated as ethical and unethical hacking. And mostly we find people are into unethical hacking(black hackers) which is not a very good sign. So it is good if we use an alternative OS(LINUX,UNIX,UBUNTU e.t.c..) along with windows, This might not be a great solution,but these OS are open source softwares and one cannot easily get information from these OS's. If it is with an individual it is okay to use a single OS as we may or maynot have confidential information in our systems, but when it comes to a companies(let it be small or huge) they will be having a very confidential information, i personally cant say that companies will be usinng alternative OS's as i have no idea of what companies would use, but if they maintain an alternative many of the cyber crimes can be controlled.
And it is suggestable if one uses genuine OS as it is very much protected, because a user buys the product with a licence for a decent period, most of our information will be secured if we use genuine products
I have no clue of software diversities creating security or not, but i think they would definately maintain security as they deal with all confidential projects e.t.c..