[LINK] The bad guys have won (was Re: www.ipv6.org.au/summit)

[Glen Turner]

Scott Howard wrote:

> You can blame the OS all you want, but if the user clicks "Run" then who's
> fault is it really?

So let's take the Malware du Jour, "Windows Xp Antivirus 2008", a program
by the Russian Mafia that looks like a real virus scanner.

Is installing that the fault of the user, or is it the fault of an
industry which encourages the use of uncertified third-party programs?
And is that in turn the fault of companies whose past behaviours make it
unreasonable for applications authors to trust that certification will
be made available to their programs, even where they compete with applications
from the OS vendor or where they damage sales of the operating system.

[And I don't just mean Microsoft. Apple certify applications for the
iPhone, and their behaviour there hasn't been a model of goodness.]

One of the reasons Linux has less malware is that everything you want
is available from a certified source (ie, a well-known software
repository). Whenever people promote the need for Linux to have
"installation programs" I wonder if they've thought through the consequences
of that.

-- 
  Glen Turner   <http://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/>