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------- THE COURSEY REPORT --------
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August 27, 2004
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Sponsored by Mercury Interactive
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http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117868-1
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In This Edition
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David Coursey: I Love SP2, Don't You?
1. Is SP2 a Case for Desktop Linux?
2. And What Do We Expect from Microsoft, Anyway?
3. Meet the New Public Enemies
4. What Happens if You Lose Customer Data and How Should You
Protect it?
5. Beware of "Free" Services
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David Coursey
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I Love SP2, Don't You?
There is a lot more to Windows XP SP2 than just
incompatibilities, which are important if they impact you
and almost meaningless if they don't. As someone firmly in
the latter camp, I was happy this week to see SP2 finally
starting to get some respect. It's a good upgrade that does
some important things for security and also improves the
operating system for everyone.
I've been using SP2 through two betas and the final release,
and while I have ran into three incompatibilities, one was
fixed in the final release, the second took a Microsoft-
provided patch for Small Business Server, and the third
required only a little nosing around the Yahoo Messenger
site to solve.
Do I feel dramatically safer running SP2? Not really, since
I always kept my patches and antivirus software up-to-date.
I already had a fine pop-up blocker, though I uninstalled it
in favor of the one in SP2, and all my machines sit behind a
server firewall. I'm not sure that the SP2 client firewall
is any better, but it's nice to know my network and clients
are now as secure as today's Microsoft technology allows.
Those who install SP2 and then run into problems will be
happy with how cleanly it uninstalls. During beta testing,
SP2 broke AOL Instant Messenger on my Tablet PC. As soon as
the SP was removed, the AIM client resumed its chores as
though nothing had ever happened, and the problem itself was
fixed in the final release of SP2.
Unless you are running one or more of the known of the SP2
"problem" applications, I'd recommend the upgrade,
especially for Tablet PCs, Media Centers, home computer,
portables, and machines connected to Wi-Fi networks.
Each of these categories significantly benefit from SP2. I
won't go into all the details, since you can visit a
Microsoft page and read it for yourself.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117871-1
SP2 also significantly improves Wi-Fi network setup and
management, as well as Bluetooth compatibility, where
Microsoft had a lot of work to do. Carol Ellison wrote a
column about the Wi-Fi upgrades that you'll want to read.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117874-1
Tablet PC gets a significant upgrade to the Input Panel that
makes it easier to input handwritten text and adds overall
performance tweaks. Media Center Edition gets improved video
display capabilities as well as some other improvements.
Mary Jo Foley recently discussed the Tablet and Media Center
improvements in her article on the new features in SP2.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117877-1
Home computers and portables need SP2 for its core security
enhancements because they are often sitting on otherwise
unprotected network connections. For these machines, SP2
solves problems most users don't even realize they have.
This is why it's so important for all home machines to be
updated ASAP. They aren't likely to be running the SP2
problem apps and will immediately present a less vulnerable
target to attackers.
Ideally, the corporate desktops are already fairly secure so
waiting on improved application compatibility shouldn't be
such a big issue. Still, the decision to upgrade shouldn't
be yes/no but "when?"
If you have SP2 questions, you will likely find them
answered on our Special Report, a compendium of what we've
written about the upgrade.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117880-1
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Is SP2 a Case for Desktop Linux?
I am not trying to get into a running gun battle with my
colleague (and friend) Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols because I
would probably lose a war of intellectual attrition. But I
think his latest desktop Linux column unfairly dismisses SP2
to make the bogus case that life would be happy if we would
only switch to Linux desktops.
I've tried a Linux desktop and my friends have tried Linux
desktops, and because we're not technical geniuses or
masochists, we failed to find Linux nearly as useful as
Windows XP. There are all kinds of reasons for that, which
are fodder for another column, but I just wanted to mention
that Steve's advice shouldn't be applied universally.
I also suspect that if Linux had the same market penetration
as Windows that it would probably be targeted about as
often. Or maybe the bad guys would target applications more
than the OS itself. I just don't subscribe to the notion
that if Windows would just vanish then cyber-crime would as
well.
Of course, if Steven had suggested a Mac desktop instead of
Linux, we might have found something to agree upon. And the
superiority of Mac OS X to Windows XP (in many ways, though
it is decreasing over time) does suggest that Linux could
someday be a much better desktop OS.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117883-1
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And What Do We Expect from Microsoft, Anyway?
Microsoft-bashing being the popular sport that it is,
Redmond has toughened itself and doesn't really expect
applause regardless of what the company does. Sure,
Microsoft could always do more. But just like I don't think
the inventors of the Internet can be blamed for all its
unforeseen problems, neither should Microsoft be blamed for
everything that's wrong with Windows.
Of course, many of these problems could have been
foreseen--or so it seems with the benefit of hindsight--but
both the Internet and Windows are hampered by decisions that
at the time made lots of sense. Decisions like, "Do we want
to continue development for another decade or do we want to
ship something?"
If we really want good security we need to accept that both
Windows and the Internet have expanded way beyond their
initial spec and should be completely and totally
overhauled. That is, thrown away and replaced with something
better and more secure. Commercial reality being what it is,
these changes won't take place until enterprises start
abandoning the Internet and Windows in droves. But that
requires something to abandon them for.
I don't see a real Internet replacement out there, and maybe
I lack vision, but I don't see a credible Windows
replacement, either. So we're stuck with people trying to do
the best they can, locked in what something seems to be the
cyber-equivalent of hand-to-hand warfare.
And I think we're stuck with it, at least for now.
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Meet the New Public Enemies
I've just finished reading an excellent new book, "Public
Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the
FBI, 1933-34," by Vanity Fair correspondent Bryan Burrough.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117886-1
Most people don't realize that John Dillinger, Bonnie and
Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face
Nelson, and the Barker-Karpis gang were all active--and
brought down--during this two-year period. Some of their
careers spanned just these two years, which which also gave
birth to J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.
What does this have to do with enterprise computing? Not
much, except I read the book while doing SP2 installs and
was reminded of it by this summer's crackdown on spammers
and cyber-criminals. And there is an important parallel:
Before the depression, crimes were mostly a state or local
jurisdictional issue. Crossing a state line made often made
the getaway complete.
Today, the Internet--which lacks state and even national
boundaries--confuses and obscures jurisdictions, providing a
safe haven for criminals. Just as Hoover's FBI made no place
safe for the Depression-era gangsters, modern law
enforcement must do the same in for the Internet era.
The battle between today's public enemies--I am especially
thinking about phishers in this context--and the Feds won't
be as dramatic or as easy as Hoover's War on Crime. But
today's battle is far more important.
Depression-era gangsters were, in terms of earning their
"Public Enemy" moniker, pikers compared to phishers,
spammers, and hackers. The threat to the average citizen and
financial impact of Dillinger et al was tiny. If you look at
nothing beyond lost productivity and the cost of defensive
measures, the costs of today's cyber-crime are staggering.
And the criminal activity is a direct threat to how hundreds
of millions of people around the world have chosen to live
their lives, not to mention how modern economies are
organized.
I don't want to get into a long discussion about it, but I
think cyber-crime is at least as serious a threat as
terrorism and the greatest likelihood is cyber-crime will
become a terrorist tool.
What has been accomplished by law enforcement this summer is
laudable but won't really be noticed in the overall impact
of computerized crime. But it's a start and the battle will
be long-which sounds suspiciously like another war we're
right now fighting. I pray it won't require an incident that
somehow approaches the magnitude of 9/11 to get more serious
resources brought to bear on Internet crime.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117889-1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What Happens if You Lose Customer Data and How Should You
Protect it?
That was the topic of an eSeminar I hosted this week and I
found it tremendously interesting. There is a lot still
undecided here, like the real cost of having a security
lapse and how much encrypting customer data actually reduces
your liability.
One of the panelists, Joel Rakow of the consulting firm
Tatum Partners had such an excellent presentation that I let
him run way too long. He did an excellent job of describing
both the liabilities and the best practices for limiting
them. The other two panelists, attorney Charles Kennedy and
eWEEK.com's Database Editor Lisa Vaas, were also very good.
If this isn't a topic you've thought much about, or if you
find it all-consuming, this is an excellent one-hour
overview.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117892-1
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117895-1
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Beware of "Free" Services
Finally, one of my columns this week warned readers to
beware of services where the business model isn't
obvious, like Plaxo and some of the social networking
companies. Take a look and I'll see you again next Friday
with a reader comment on why social networking should be
downright frightening.
http://eletters.eweek.com/zd1/cts?d=79-1037-20-37-22237-117898-1
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Contributing Editor David Coursey's first computers were an
Apple II and a KayPro II, back in 1980. Even with all the
problems of using Windows, Linux et al, he's usually happy
he doesn't have to go back to those thrilling days of
yesteryear. Drop him a note if you'd like to comment on this
newsletter or pose a question. mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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