An excellent Security Now podcast (#91) with one of the original hackers.
http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
Great insight into network security – Such as:
- Most vulnerabilities in a computer are non-Microsoft, they are vulnerabilities within iTunes, Adobe, QuckTime, Flash, etc..
- Hackers are finding vulnerabilities in non-Microsoft application just as fast as they are finding Microsoft vulnerabilities. The big difference is that other software vendors do not have regular patches like Microsoft.
- Microsoft has the best practice around security than any other software company- because they were forced to. Other vendors have not been forced to and that is why they are more vulnerable.
- As more functionality is added to browsers, their attack surface increases and they become bigger targets.
- As more appliations become hosted it becomes harder for “white” hat hackers and researchers to search for vulnerabilities b/c it becomes illegal at that point while black hat hackers have no such quams.
- If hosting servers become compromised, a hacker can have access to millions of people’s information instead of just one.
- Windows is actually more secure than Macs
- Don’t buy Vista for the security features- it has vulnerabilities as well
