Hi andy (and everybody),
Indeed. I vote for personal computer liberty over guaranteed iron clad
security any day. For amusing and shocking rants on this subject google up
some classic Ross Anderson. Or heck, I'll do it for you:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html
A related and more present worry I have is that Microsoft's messaging is going
to morph on the security front from software security (good) to software
security features end-to-end yadda (bad). I chatted with Steve Lipner about
this at the DHS software assurance thing this week and he does not seem to
share my concerns. Then again, he does worry about what the marketing people
make up. In my view, we US citizens have learned the hard way over the last 8
years that security makes a great excuse to compromise integrity and personal
liberty.
I like the fact that Microsoft makes a big deal about software security and I
hope they don't stop or lose focus and start somehow associating software
security with we own your computer and we'll do what's best for you.
Radically yours,
gem
http://www.cigital.com/~gem
On 5/9/08 12:33 PM, Andy Steingruebl [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Gary McGraw [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
hi sc-l,
Here's an article about Mundie's keynote at RSA. It's worth a read from a
software security perspective. Somehow I ended up playing the foil in this
article...go figure.
http://reddevnews.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=2470
So what do you guys think? Is this end-to-end trusted computing stuff going
to fly with developers?
I think you're both right. I'm working on a longer writeup of the
ideas on the end-to-end paper but I think you've captured part of the
problem at the heart of things. We're going to have to trade some
fundamental computing liberties to get the kind of security required
to actually have trusted relationships via computers. Good or bad I
don't want to comment on right now. If you've read Code and other
laws of cyberspace by Lessig you'll see some of the same ideas albeit
it from a more regulatory perspective than from a purely technical
one. The updated Code 2.0 book captures a lot of these same ideas.
I think Charny is missing the mark ever so slightly when he says the
security goals can be achieved without compromise on the part of
privacy, or functionality. As Lessig clearly points out - the rules
of the networks, computers, etc. aren't real rules in any sense. its
not like they are physical laws, the rules are determined by code.
This code, and the policy behind it, can change.
I think the real question isn't whether this is going to fly with
developers, its whether its going to fly with the public at large.
Are people (and their proxies - Governments) going to finally demand a
change in the the rules/game?
--
Andy Steingruebl
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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