07.21.07
Inherently Insecure
With all of the new emphasis on DRM, otherwise known as Technological Usage Restrictions, in Windows Vista, how can Microsoft claim the product is more secure? If you swap out your hard drive, for example, you could fail “activation” and show up as “stolen software” on Microsoft’s radar. Once that happens, Windows will limit your use of the system.
One important question to ask yourself: Since we know that Vista is designed to enable “content providers” to remotely disable the use of said content, and we know that it is also designed to enable Microsoft to remotely disable functionality of Vista (which could be understood as retroactively canceling your purchase without refunding your money), why doesn’t anyone think that one of the bad guys (crackers) out there will discover how to usurp that built-in functionality to limit or stop computer users from enjoying what they bought? I’m guessing that some of the highly-skilled and financially-motivated gangs in Russia or China are hard at work on the problem now.
If they succeed, watch for widespread attacks that trigger Microsoft’s anti-theft TUR.
This is brought to us by the same kind of situation that made OPEC so damaging to Western economies: concentration of economic power in a key industry into the hands of an “opoly”. With oil, it was an oligopoly, in which a small number of large petroleum companies controlled the world market for extraction, refining, distribution, and marketing of oil products. In the client computer operating systems market, it is a monopoly, in which a single company controls the world market for creation, sales, and distribution of client operating systems for both consumer and business markets.
With oil, once the countries where the extraction took place rose up and choked off the supply for the existing oil cartel, OPEC was able to do substantial damage to the economy. Ask your nearest 45 year-old (or older) about the gas lines and the odd / even days. We can only imagine the horrible consequences if Vista is widely deployed and China decides to shut down our information technology systems.
Radio station chains rely upon computers to select their playlists–this gives them a distinct cost advantage over “mom & pop” stations that have to pay someone to be there on the air at all times–suddenly, radio stations may be off the air. And that is just the beginning. Computerization has enabled companies to do more with fewer employees. Can you imagine a scenario in which every company in America was trying to hire people with the skills to compose business documents by hand (or using the old typewriter in the basement) and do math without reliance upon (Windows-powered) cash registers? Can you imagine banks having to hire and train tellers again and extend their hours because the (Windows-powered) ATMs don’t work?
Most of us do not grow any substantial portion of our food supply, so any large-scale disruption can quickly affect us. Vista’s focus on anti-theft technological usage restrictions presents a very inviting target for bad guys like the foreign Internet criminal gangs that use networks of “bots” (compromised computers) for such nefarious purposes as filling our inboxes with spam messages and obtaining bank and credit card information.
I contend that Windows Vista is inherently insecure and unfit for deployment by the majority of American consumers, businesses, and government agencies. Instead, get a Mac or even better, get a Linux computer. Above all, avoid allowing any single company or small group of companies in any industry to become an “opoly” and gain enough market share to control the market. Buying the products and services produced by smaller, locally-owned businesses is the way to do that in most industries.
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