/snip > MVS (or OS/390 or z/OS or whatever you want to call it) has > NEVER been hacked or destroyed by an ex employee !!.
How do you know? Do you expect any financial company to make an advertisement "Hello! We're open for hackers!". I suspect that no company want do disclose it. /endsnip Please tell me of 'one' financial company that has been hacked ... but remember now .. get rid of the 'non mainframe' environments first !!. Better yet ... please tell me that you KNOW for a fact that if a financial company was hacked ... 'nobody' would know ?? .. Do you really believe that ??. Further, going by your own approach, why then have 'financial' and other institutions admitted that their wonderful non-mainframe environment has been 'attacked' or gotten a 'virus' or whatever ??. /snip > In fact, let me re-state that .. the mainframes HAVE NEVER > been hacked or destroyed by an ex employee !!. Well, I know such evidence (maybe it was misuse - it's a matter of definition of "been hacked"), cannot provide details. Another, publicly known example: Kevin Mitnick. Obviously he wasn't ex-employee (is it better?), and he hacked people, not systems. So? /endsnip I admit that I have not the foggiest who Kevin Mitnick is ... but bear with me and I'll find out ... and I'll also find out the circumstances. That said ... yes, I have had exposure to misuse and in fact, have known of circumstances where 'A Current' employee has ... umm shall I say .. embezzled ... forgive me but .. in this context ... we're speaking of apples and oranges. I will further admit that I have know of people that use to 'purposefully' code for abends but then too, that was only because they could be called on the weekends and hence, justify time that they would ask remuneration for. /snip Some remarks: 1. "Mainframe system" could mean z/OS or poorly configured Linux. Is the Linux on mainframe any more secure than Linux on PC? IMHO the difference is none or very small. /endsnip Sorry ... Linux did not enter the picture till recently but FWIW, Linux is still a hell of a lot better than WinBlows. /snip 2. Usually "mainframe systems" are big, very big or huge installations when compared to PC installations. There is no reason to compare small PC server in small company to huge financial system. /endsnip My apologies ... I was not comparing but you are very correct ... there is no comparison. As I've said before .... I like PC's for what they were engineered for .. to be a 'personal computer' ... they were 'never' designed, architected or built to be a 'business' computer. Hang on .. what's this discussion about ?? .. I agree that 'mainframe systems' are meant for big, very big or huge installations ... e.g. ... any business !!. Please tell me again, why we are talking about 'small PCs' for a 'business' purpose ... unless of course, it's a small mom and pop shop !!. /snip 3. Ex-employees hacking, social hacking - that could affect any platform, the platform resilience play minor role here. Again, usually the bigger comany the better rules apply. /endsnip Really ... must be why most all if not all Winblows environments are hacked or virused or whatever the devil you want to call it .. on a daily basis ... For starters, 'social anything' is NOT traditionally part of MVS ... perhaps that's why PC's were invented. My apologies again .. but I beg to differ .. despite all the 'rules', how many times, pray tell, have you heard of non-winblows environments being 'attacked by a virus' or 'by a hacker' or . or . or ... in fact, please tell me (or remind me) if you've ever heard of the terms 'virus' and such prior to the asinine and moronic acceptance of WinBlows into the business world and yes ... they were really 'smart' management material ... /snip 4. Obviously (for us, mainframers) it's much easier to set up secure mainframe shop, that to set up secure PC installation. More, PC installation cannot achieve the level of security which is available for mianframe (with z/OS). It's like bank safe and tent: you can leave both open - and security is comparable (and poor). You can also try to secure both - then you have good effects with safe, but still poor effects with a tent. /endsnip Easier for us mainframers ?? ... now why is that ??. A PC installation cannot be 'easily' secured ?? .. again .. why is that ?? and then, why the devil are PC's being used in a business environment ??. Because a 'smart' CxO thinks so ?? .... Where are the board of investors ?? .. I'd hope they'd have a shred of intelligence given that they're investing money into the damned company. I don't give a toss if it's a bank safe or a tent .. the fact of the matter is and in fact .. if you read thru the goat's .. (Billy the MicroDaft goat) responses ... it's easy for anybody to see that they are (and why they are) desperately trying to reinvent the wheel... From a recent post .. they won't make the same mistake as us ??. Let's see now ... having worked (low level) on both the mainframe and on the non mainframe sides, having watched, not to mention, quit any involvement on the PC side (since the days of Win 3.1), the only mistakes I see that mainframe people made was that we a) went to school .. back then .. usually for engineering ... we didn't have HTML or other xxML crap or even computer science back then, b) we were not power or specifically 'patent' hungry, c) we did not try to promote ourselves by finding an idea that other's had been using for decades and then trying to get a patent for it, d) as I've said many a time before, we did not try to 'recompile' (re-assembler in our world) all the code that anybody and everybody had dreamt of, just to justify our jobs and 'prove' that we were important. Lastly and perhaps my biggest rant ... we ALL wanted to and DID use our brains ... not just copy somebody else's code (or idea) and DEFINITELY did not want a point and click IDE to write our code for us !! just so that the so called 'smart' upper level management could preach and draw pretty pictures about Rapid Development or any other BS !!. Come to think of it ... w/out MicroDaft, they would not have been able to do that would they ... and I'd venture to say that nine out of ten CxO's do not know how to use a crayon much less and pencil. Actually ... we are all worried about performance but we don't give a hoot about some stupid Microdaft IDE that can take a single 'assembly' or 'assembler' statement and turn it into a fifty line program ... Yep .. performance it is ... What better for a CxO's speech to the board of investors ... hey dumb arses ... I've got my company to make this tool that only requires your 'engineers' to point and clink !! (yes .. I purposely said clink). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@bama.ua.edu with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
