4 ms·

The days when you could blame Windows for being more insecure than other OSes are long, long gone. That hasn't been the case for probably at least a decade at t

The days when you could blame Windows for being more insecure than other OSes are long, long gone. That hasn't been the case for probably at least a decade at this point.

SquibblesRedux 5y ago
I think there is a grain of truth in the idea of not using Windows. However, as you point out, it is not just Windows. All of our IT systems have evolved in fits and spurts with insufficient investment in security from the ground up. It is entirely plausible that most businesses are doing IT the "wrong way" given the current requirements of interconnectivity and global commerce. While there are numerous ideas on what the "right way" to do IT might look like, no one has reconciled that with the economics of current business practices.
- user-the-name 5y ago
  The main security benefit you get from not using Windows is almost purely that Windows is the most common, and thus the most targeted. And even that is changing, as Windows slowly wanes in popularity and high-value targets use other systems.
  - staticassertion 5y ago
    Not really true. There are a number of problems with Windows and, more generally, the Microsoft ecosystem. One clear area is that Windows has very weak separation of admin from user. There are tons of great mechanisms like integrity levels, but for a user's laptop Microsoft does not consider UAC to be a boundary between user and Admin and so escalations are ubiquitous. This is certainly not the case with OSX and Linux. Windows also has a litany of persistence mechanisms, far more than I'm aware of with OSX and Linux. The Windows registry is this incredible hive of ways to execute code. There's all sorts of debt involved that really puts Windows at a disadvantage, despite their significant investments that we should all celebrate. Once you add things like Word, Active Directory, etc, it gets really bad. If you're building a traditional "microsoft" network you're setting yourself up for ransomware.
varjag 5y ago
People keep repeating this hoping it'll make it true. But every single system hit in a high profile ransom attack has been Windows and every firsthand account of ransomware I personally know of was on a Windows system. This is despite the vast majority of critical infrastructure running on something else than Windows, and ever-increasing penetration of Apple into corporate. All systems have varying degrees of vulnerability but only Windows lends itself to automating them to such an astonishing degree.
arpa 5y ago
Windows still hides file extensions by default and is as user-hostile, as ever.

The days when you could blame Windows for being more insecure than other OSes are long, long gone. That hasn't been the case for probably at least a decade at this point.

SquibblesRedux 5y ago

I think there is a grain of truth in the idea of not using Windows. However, as you point out, it is not just Windows. All of our IT systems have evolved in fits and spurts with insufficient investment in security from the ground up. It is entirely plausible that most businesses are doing IT the "wrong way" given the current requirements of interconnectivity and global commerce. While there are numerous ideas on what the "right way" to do IT might look like, no one has reconciled that with the economics of current business practices.

user-the-name 5y ago
The main security benefit you get from not using Windows is almost purely that Windows is the most common, and thus the most targeted. And even that is changing, as Windows slowly wanes in popularity and high-value targets use other systems.
- staticassertion 5y ago
  Not really true. There are a number of problems with Windows and, more generally, the Microsoft ecosystem. One clear area is that Windows has very weak separation of admin from user. There are tons of great mechanisms like integrity levels, but for a user's laptop Microsoft does not consider UAC to be a boundary between user and Admin and so escalations are ubiquitous. This is certainly not the case with OSX and Linux. Windows also has a litany of persistence mechanisms, far more than I'm aware of with OSX and Linux. The Windows registry is this incredible hive of ways to execute code. There's all sorts of debt involved that really puts Windows at a disadvantage, despite their significant investments that we should all celebrate. Once you add things like Word, Active Directory, etc, it gets really bad. If you're building a traditional "microsoft" network you're setting yourself up for ransomware.

varjag 5y ago

People keep repeating this hoping it'll make it true. But every single system hit in a high profile ransom attack has been Windows and every firsthand account of ransomware I personally know of was on a Windows system. This is despite the vast majority of critical infrastructure running on something else than Windows, and ever-increasing penetration of Apple into corporate. All systems have varying degrees of vulnerability but only Windows lends itself to automating them to such an astonishing degree.

arpa 5y ago

Windows still hides file extensions by default and is as user-hostile, as ever.