Security's Heaviest Hitters
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Who are the most influential people in security?
Dennis Fisher, the eWeek security columnist for the last 5 years was asked this question by the RSA people at the recent RSA conference. With all of the people he's covered, it was interesting to read his choices for the top 3.
Two I'm not surprised at. The first two I cannot argue with, though honestly I'm not sure who I would pick. Probably Phil Zimmerman, but I haven't followed security enough. The third, however, was rather surprising to me: Bill Gates
It's an interesting choice, with Mr. Gates being chosen for both positive and negative contributions to computer security. I guess the Slashdot folks will compare this to Hitler being chosen as an influential figure, and to some extent it's true. As the guy that drove Windows out into the world with more features and cool things for developers without considering the security aspects, he should take some blame. Especially after his turnaround in the mid 90's, getting all of those Windows systems onto the Internet.
But I do agree that the last couple years, he has really driven home the security push. In speaking with developers and hearing about their efforts, it seems that security really has become a big focus. There's still way more work to be done, and lots of code to review, but I think Microsoft is making great strides in the right direction.
Steve Jones
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I think the use of the "Hitler" Metaphor in this editorial - equating a "mass murderer" with "Bill Gates" and "computer security" is really out of place- such verbal diarrhea could be easily edited out without the cry of "free speech".
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I think you'll find that the author wasn't comparing Bill Gates with Hitler but emphasising the sometimes hysterical condemnation of the Slashdot crowd of people like Bill Gates.
It is not good enough just to scan articles and react to words and phrases, context also plays an important role.
Cheers
Chris
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A agree with Chris in this instance, you have got to consider the context in which something is written before reacting to it.
Thanks
Simon.
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Looking at Bill Gates and his achievements in putting a usable operating system out for the masses, and then saying because it allowed devious people to use it for purposes other than those intended, is like blaming the USA and it's success in world trade and politics for the terrorists that threaten the world today.
There will always be bad guys! Whether they rob banks, fly airplanes into buildings, or write rouge software to attack computers! So we all need to get off individual backs, even very successful people's backs, and lets all work together to keep the bad guys away.
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Bill G has done a lot to bolster security in MS products and he should rightly be commended for this. Many software companies, MS included, failed to take security seriously enough. That is now changing, as IT security is now in the spotlight for a number of good reasons: widespread use of new technologies, like broadband internet and wireless; widespread propagation of stealth servers, worms, and other malware; widespread use of such aforementioned malware to commit financial fraud and identity theft, rather than "just" for exploits that appeal to Geekdom, like DDOS attacks on the RIAA.
MS isn't the only company involved in this security effort, of course. AMD and Intel are both adding the "NX" (or "XD" for Intel chips) capability to their processors, making buffer overflows more difficult to exploit with a malware payload. IBM has pushed increased security in its products (not sure how this was affected by Lenovo deal). AV companies have adapted by auto-checking new AV signatures on a daily basis, rather than once a week or once a month. Some banks or financial institutions deserve credit as well for their embrace of two-factor authentication (BOA, for example, for its SiteKey service).
Bill Gates deserves credit where credit is due. He has pushed security in a big way at Microsoft, and I commend him for it. On a final note, the Hitler analogy--while certainly not intended to demonize Gates--was probably not a sensible analogy given the profoundly negative association to a regime associated with mass murder, Slashdot bias notwithstanding.
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, Godwin's Law certainly applies to Slasdot.
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