[LINK] The cost of monoculture

[Rick Welykochy]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:

> This nation is also a unique monoculture where 99.9% of all the computer 
> users are on Microsoft Windows. This nation is a place where Apple 
> Macintosh users cannot bank online, make any purchases online, or 
> interact with any of the nation's e-government sites online. In fact, 
> Linux users, Mozilla Firefox users and Opera users are also banned from 
> any of these types of transactions because all encrypted communications 
> online in this nation must be done with Active X controls.
> 
> Where is this nation?
> 
> South Korea.

The real cost is the ease at which North Korea (for example) could take
out the entire cybersphere of South Korea in one fell swoop. Find a 0-day
attack that is worm-based and let 'er rip. The only thing left standing will
be the few hapless Linux and Mac users.

The same applies here as it does to a mono-culture in the biosphere: one
virulent pests can wipe out the whole lot. Although in this case it would
be one virulent pest wiping out another 8-)

cheers
rickw


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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

People who enjoy eating sausage and obey the law should not watch either being made.
      -- Otto von Bismarck