The biggest threat to open source in 2009

TalkBack 9 of 59:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

Ok -- lets audit some text ..... shall we..

Firefox update call, from Securitymike?s blogSecurity and updates, which are often the same thing.

Originally there chief Wiggam's they were called "patches" As in version patches when building software. There are final version , revision and patched version updates.

There is no longer any doubt that hackers and malware writers are going after open source projects as they once went after Windows. Vulnerabilities are being found, discovered, created, exchanged.

Doubt from where? Hackers are and will always be a fable or legend. The world is experienced and grown up enough to confident say there are two type of computer personnel criminal and non-criminal computer activity. It doesn't need to be earth shattering but it doe need to be specific. Malware is just a symptom of a larger plague, that once again can be under the criminal activities list.

The best protection against vulnerabilities is to keep software updated, but most open source lacks update services. That?s one part of the Windows license that is worth paying for, and there does not seem to be an open source equivalent.

Oof take about a serious wrong answer there. Get this guy a shot another shot of whiskey. He is still way hung over. I have a home network comprised of nearly every type of windows and free unix offered. There is exceedingly good virus protection for free for the individual windows -- Avast to name one, Lava-soft for two. Zone alarm for three. They are great beginner first tier precautions. But NOTHING is 100% - don't try to believe it.

An exception is Firefox (above, from SecurityMike). But how many take advantage of this? And how tied is Firefox to updating for security purposes? Remember we?re talking about pushing updates, not asking users to pull them.

(wTF) the exception is FIrefox? I wonder if he means Mozilla? dude: in most windows preferences for the programs they have a little funky button some programmer probably spent a week on design to hook into the ftp/http server --- so you can say if you want to update
or not.

In any case, the enterprise market is more important here. Servers hold more secrets than clients.

What ever that means



Palamida is trying to build a model for supporting updates, as I described in November. Such a service could, if executed correctly, even give many open source projects a valid business model.


Ah the meaning of the story... Would have served people much better saying " these folks have a new twist on a old idea. -- " The click here and get software for software " you might know it or seen it before ...

But until this ramps up (hopefully in a competitive market), enterprise managers have an easy way to say ?no? to open source.

Manager ?

needs to know how to "use" google and search
Preferences fro Blah blah software the manager
is using. or search google for "auto updating
software systems"


Regardless of how dangerous this is, the fact that managers feel it?s dangerous makes it so.


Managers: know enough to be dangerous -- isn't that the general malaise for a manager..

This may be the first challenge to open source?s growth in the enterprise since that growth began, and for some it may prove intractable.

Manager -- simple : follow please

staging servers / production severs

There is a way forward, using the enterprise business model, but how many projects will be able to exploit it in a professional way and retain their enterprise credibility remains open to question.

you really need to know what your talking about, most criminal activity in the criminal is largely done from the inside. the lucky breaks that go unnoticed in log files are short in number. Similar to how the media works -- the media, many people speculate but few are the people involved that make news for the media to cover.

It?s a story I?ll be watching closely as the year unfolds, and I suggest you do the same.

The only factual thing said by this writer

Posted by: boredsillyinedu   Posted on: 01/01/09 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Why Isn't Server Virtualization Saving Us More? A Few Small Changes May Dramatically Increase Your Efficiency VMware Companies have rapidly adopted server virtualization over the past few ... Download Now
• Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now
• VMware Infrastructure: A Guide to Bottom-Line Benefits VMware Frustrated by the costs of maintain ever larger data centers?or building ... Download Now