[LINK] Gates: protect Windows Vista users with IP

[rchirgwin at ozemail.com.au]

http://www.potaroo.net/ispcol/2007-02/address-paper.html

> None of these factors are driving IPv6 deployment. IPv6 is no 
> different to IPv4 in terms of its deployment capabilities, carriage 
> efficiencies, security properties, or service capabilities.


I personally would give more weight to Geoff Houston's assessment than 
to Bill's speechwriter's. Moreover, when MS gives me more security 
there's always an MS benefit, such as:

>IPv6 and IPsec have greater memory than IPv4 meaning more information can be placed in the IP packets about the devices and applications connecting online and about users' access rights. 
>
Leaving aside the "more memory" howler ... ahh, more information about 
the device and about the user's access rights...

>Gates, today announced a new direction - collaboration with the community based OpenID initiative. OpenID authenticates users online via URIs or XRIs, and Microsoft is working on support for OpenID 2.0 in Windows Vista.
>  
>
...ahh. To work with a site that runs the security system I have to have 
an XRI. And how do other parties authenticate me via the XRI? Via a 
server that holds my XRI. So the question of trust would then run to 
"who is operating the XRI server?"

That aspect isn't trivial. What if a group of like-minded companies 
decided to award a single worldwide root for "their" security service 
(as has happened with RFID tags and hardware certificates for WiMAX 
devices)? Whose law governs the root server? - the country in which it 
resides. Would I want my security info goverened by US law?

Also cute is the "blame the user" here:

>"The challenge we face in administering and using them [Windows Vista and Office 2007] is humans - and humans make mistakes. A large part of what we do going forward is not dealing with the engineering aspects of the software we build, but we have to deal with the fact errors do happen whether by accident or intentional," he said.
>  
>
While I accept that the "dumb me" syndrome is a major contributor, it is 
disingenuous to try and gloss over the flaws in Windows which make those 
mistakes fatal...

RC