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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ProDeath who wrote (44522)	5/8/2000 3:24:00 PM
From: JC Jaros	Respond to of 74651

Re: BASIC Security model - 10 years ago I was involved in the development of a DOS BBS/Net program. We used QuickBasic in some part because of it's string handling abilities. We also availed the source code for the BBS to SysOps to modify. It was known to us that there was one or two absolute show stopping exploitable security holes in QuickBasic that could only be somewhat patched in the BBS. Microsoft would not, or could not patch it. --- Looking back at that, it's not only remarkable that the bugs were not more widely exploited, but remarkable as well that Microsoft still has the same security model this many years later with the VisualBasic product. --- Old dog - old tricks. -JCJ

To: ProDeath who wrote (44522)	5/8/2000 3:39:00 PM
From: cheryl williamson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

Security is one of those murkey issues for end-users that is going to wind up driving them closer & closer to a thin client solution for e-commerce xactions and general internet connectivity. A LOT of end-users will see a simple solution like a cell phone w/internet access easy & cheap to use & also very secure. No file system to protect, limited access to the O/S, encrypted internet xactions & most importantly, nothing to think about. Leave the security to your ISP. Let them worry about that, you have enough to worry about. I can see lots & lots of PC customers who will use their PC for games & video & entertainment etal. but when it comes to secure xactions over the internet, they're gonna go for thin client solutions. I remember it was Bill Joy who said (about 2 or 3 years ago) that security (that is, a lack of security) was going to really hurt Wintel & limit PC sales, especially when it comes to the internet. It looks like his prediction is coming to pass.

To: ProDeath who wrote (44522)	5/8/2000 4:40:00 PM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74651

pretty sensible post - but angled pretty much to the Old World of DOS based Windows products. If I ever said anything good about security or management or reliability about that product line, it was a typo or temporary insanity. However, the big corporate desktop management environments I have looked at lock down the user environment pretty tightly. Of course those are NT or Win2K desktops where it is possible to avoid the pitfalls you describe. And finally, I'm not "Blaming" the ISPs - I'm just saying that they are in the best position to help control internet abuse of various kinds, including denial of service and virus propagation. Actually the phone company is at least partially responsible for obscene phone calls and annoying telemarketers and have a lot of services in place to keep those problems off your ear. And the argument is the same - they may not be the creators of the problem but they are the ones in a position to control and mitigate the effects.