More from the DHS

[Paddy]

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/07/21/dhs/

Why, one has to ask, is there NO mention of the rather obvious 3rd option??? In an article posted to MacCentral, no less?    

"But with the discovery on July 16 of a critical security flaw affecting nearly every version of the Windows operating system -- including Windows Server 2003, the first product to be sold under Microsoft's so-called Trustworthy Computing initiative -- some security experts are warning that the DHS may have backed itself into a security quagmire."

So why wasn't Sir Steve on Tom's doorstep? Hmmm?

[Epaminondas]

This just keeps getting better and better.  


Microsoft tried this last year at the Pentagon - and failed:

http://www.osforge.com/news/00772.html

Simply stated, the people who run the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are running on a lot dimmer wattage than the people who run the Pentagon.

This does give me hope for the freedom of Americans.

The neat thing - I mean, the really, really neat thing - is that it looks like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is intent on creating a Microsoft computing monoculture.  

"For security reasons."

One platform to bind them.  

It looks like every other platform in the organization may be toast.

If this is true - and I pray that it is - it would appear to mean that people currently working there on Macs and on *nix platforms are going to have to either abandon those platforms or leave.

This is a political decision made at high levels, not a technical decision.

It is not open to discussion.  It is a done deal.

If true - what does this really mean?


It means that they are going to find it kinda difficult to eavesdrop on Macs and on *nix boxes if they aren't allowed to have any around to practice on.

Or if the people who know and understand these platforms have all left the building.


Now, the KGB - the KGB used to concern me.  Until near the end, of course, when they were just going through the motions.

But these guys?

I sleep a little bit better each night with each development in this particular circus.

Knowing that Americans are a little safer in their own homes.


Another interesting ramification of this contract "win" by Miocrosoft -

As Microsoft becomes the sole operating system identified with the United States CIA - an organization that is not entirely trusted by the citizens and the governments of a number of foreign countries - other governments are going to have increasing incentive to dump Microsoft systems.  

As a necessity.  Simply to protect their own national security.

This is a sound political counter-decision.

So - what looks like a win for Microsoft in the short run in the U.S. is a loss for Microsoft on the larger world stage.


Oh - one last thought -

Real terrorists - both of them - will just use non-Microsoft systems for their own nefarious computer activities.

And the U.S. Department of Homeland Security won't even have a clue.

The people who once knew how to handle those sorts of threats will all be working on other projects.

Or else they will be out on their ears.


It does make me kinda glad that I don't live in a U.S. target city.


All this almost makes me wonder if the U.S. shouldn't consider pursuing a less abrasive international foreign policy.

I'm kinda partial to the Canadian approach, myself.


Peace and music -

Epaminondas

______________________________________________________________



Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies,
in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who
are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes
of its children.


Dwight David Eisenhower


West Point - Class of 1915
SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe)
President, Columbia University
Supeme Commander, North Atlantic Treaty Organization
President, United States of America
Husband of Mamie
1890-1969

I liked Ike

At ease