On Monday, October 11, 2004, Global Knowledge Dev. Moderator asked: > 4) Are there new technologies that can help meet the cyber-security > threats?
During this cyber-security discussion I find it interesting that no one has addressed the topic of what effective technologies exist to combat the growing menace of attacks on personal as well as corporate systems. As all computer users know, Microsoft Windows (the world's most popular computer operating system) is especially vulnerable to attack from numerous kinds of viruses, trojans, worms and spyware. Recently I came across this article written by Paul Brislen, a reporter for The New Zealand Herald. He writes: "For the first half of the year, anti-virus research company Symantec reported 1237 new online security vulnerabilities - an average of 48 a week. Nearly all those vulnerabilities, about 97 per cent, were considered moderate or highly severe, and 70 per cent were considered easy to exploit. There is a growing online threat to businesses, their intellectual property and their good name if they don't take the appropriate security measures." Brislen then goes on to describe the problems of running a Windows PC and writes, "Users are spending more time taking care of their PCs instead of taking care of business... Firewalls and anti-virus protection are no longer enough to keep confidential information out of the hands of competitors or fraudsters." Brislen concludes, "Perhaps the final word should go to Richard Clarke, the cyber-security adviser appointed by former US President Bill Clinton. Clarke, who toured New Zealand recently, said he has managed to protect his computer from more than 99 per cent of all known viruses, worms, network attacks and spyware. He runs an Apple [Macintosh], not a Microsoft PC, and says that does the job nicely." While the Macintosh OS is not exactly a "new" technology (more a "niche" technology unfamiliar to the majority of computer users), I feel that the Mac OS is a valuable 'tool' for helping protect both businesses and individuals from the flood of cyber-attacks that they have to deal with every day. Perhaps the donors, rather than spending huge amounts of money on virus protection, training, and recovery of systems and networks once they are attacked, should help developing countries purchase Macintosh's. The initial up-front cost differential (Macs tend to be more expensive than PC's) will be more than made up for by the considerable savings in support. Jim Burnham ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
