“The US Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) has sent a letter to Tom Ridge, secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, urging the department to stop using insecure software,” The Sydney Morning Herald reports. The CCIA was referring to the recent decision by the Department to buy $US90 million worth of Microsoft software that involves around 140,000 desktops. The CCIA is a non-profit membership organization for companies and senior executives from diverse sectors of the computer and communications industry.
“We believe that the Department should lead by example, and ensure that it uses only the most secure technology, software, and procedures. The Department’s decision does not foster confidence that this goal is being realized,” the CCIA states in the press release.
“Design flaws in Microsoft’s products have recently been responsible for temporary closure of Maryland’s Department of Motor Vehicles offices, failure of the passenger check-in system at Air Canada, an intrusion on the Navy-Marine intranet, and cancellations and suspensions of service on the CSX railroad. Additionally, a Microsoft exploit managed to disable a safety monitoring system at an off-line nuclear power plant,” CCIA states.
“These vulnerabilities and exploits are not new, and unfortunately were predictable. CCIA believes it is critical to maintain secure systems to protect homeland security, and so CCIA has asked the Department to reconsider its decision to promote Microsoft as the default software for DHS. Reliance on a company that distributes products known to have such serious vulnerabilities will not provide adequate security and stability to protect of our nation’s most important computer systems,” CCIA states.
The fill CCIA letter (.pdf) to Tim Ridge is here. [Attribution: The Sydney Morning Herald]
Related MacDailyNews article:
“Apple’s Mac OS X added to U.S. government list of supported platforms” – August 28, 2003
Starting with the city of Munich’s decision to go with Suse and IBM, I think we are starting to witness the end of MS as we have unfortunately known it.
I can see the political cartoon now, Mr’s Gates (the waiter) serving Mr. Ridge (the patron) a big piece of smelly swiss cheese on a platter with Microsoft and Security slogans tagged to the cheese
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Deja vu all over again. Like I said before, M$ is a potential national security risk.
Gald to read someone with an economic weight has stated that.
Homeland Security relying on Microsoft is a perfect example of an oxymoron. Pretty embarassing.
Not just embarssing, downright dangerous and foolish.
Security is useless if it is difficult to use. Who else, besides Apple (Panther), offers the following integrated into the OS (as it should be) rather as some cumbersome add-on from a 3rd party?…
– Homeland security –
FileVault secures your home directory by encrypting its entire contents using the Advanced Encryption Standard with 128-bit keys. This high-performance algorithm automatically encrypts and decrypts on the fly, so you don�t even know it�s happening.
– Permanent deletion –
Now you can completely erase sensitive files you no longer need. When you delete a file or folder, Secure Erase Trash makes sure that it no longer exists. Traditional file deleting simply removes the file name from the disk directory but leaves the file data in place. Secure Erase Trash immediately overwrites the file with random data [7 times], so that the file disappears and cannot be reconstructed.
[http://www.apple.com/macosx/panther/file_vault.html]
You would think agencies that require REAL security would jump at this!!
This is the perfect example of what is wrong with the Bush administration. They call an organization “Homeland Security” and they go the exact opposite direction in execution. Just like “No Child Left Behind” has a policy of closing low-performing schools. How stupid is that? What are those kids supposed to do? Get jobs? We couldn’t possibly put some money in there. No, NO TAXES is their mantra – regardless of the consequences. Next the Labor Department will start setting up sweat shops instead of closing them. So the kids can be kept out of trouble.
I doubt DHS will drop MS.
Gates will say that Server 2003 or Longhorn is the most secure OS and MS is American like Apple pie. Tom Ridge does not seem like the guy to back down from a decision he personally made after having a personal meeting with Gates. There was no review or bids by competing companies. Just a one on one meeting.
Read this
http://www.cs.usask.ca/grads/cmw133/undergradethics/reviews/encrypt2.html
Ummm, using M$ didn’t start with Bush, let’s keep that kind of crap out of here. Clinton is also a bumbling idiot that didn’t do jack for this country.
Well if I had to guess I would think that Mr. Bill used the US government as his business model. There appear to be a lot of similarities. With all of the bucks that M$ has spent to grease the palms of the government crooks what other software hardware package would they chose?
Unf*cking believable. Could you think of anything more backward and blatantly corrupt??? The Department of Homeland Security buys 90M worth of Windows boxes. Is that what I’m hearing? There must be a mistake. Kids will be able to break into these systems. What is wrong with Ridge? Two options –he’s either:
1) Too stupid to know any better (as if) or;
2) The most corrupt motherf*cker to sell out The United States of America that ever lived.
Crap, as a Canadian I count on The States to be secure!
Funny you say that as a Canadian considering you don’t support us publicly and belittle us around the world. If you depend on us for security, ante up more money and troops to help us get rid of terrorists around the world.
Guys, to hear you all, you seem like your starting to doubt that the USA is the world’s greatest democracy. Careful, or the DHS will be paying you a visit (if they can get their computers to stop blue-screening).
I’m not pro-MS, but Ridge deciding to spend $90 million isn’t exactly a sign of corruption.
Now if the DHS was given $90 million then I’d say opbvious bribe, but the money was spent.
This is more a sign of outright stupidity then corruption.
rageous,
I agree with you, but I would not call it stupidity but rather ignorance. He probably believes the sales pitch that Gates gave.
What I don’t like is the fact that bids were requested and demos of various products.
With other branches of the gov’t, they ask for several companies to demonstrate their product. The Air Force does not buy a new jet without having competing companies build a demonstrator model and prove their technology. AND THAT IS FOR MULTIBILLION DOLLAR MODELS.
I think the DHS should have asked for dummy networks to be set up for Linux, AIX, OS X, BSD, and Windows. That is in the thousands not millions or billions. THe networks could have been tested for ease of use, security, and stability.
Jets, bombers, even computer hardware used for national security are throughly tested, why not computer OS?
Actual software applications are throughly tested but not the OS.
Now, Chomper, remember which administration persued anti-trust prosecution of M$ and which one has dropped the ball. M$ not only gets no scrutiny from BushCo it gets furthered support for perpetuating insecurity.
Chomper, please don’t give us your delusional view of the truth. Americans were not in some grand spiritual unison when it came to war. The Canadian government chose to do what it did based on its own analysis. Canadians were also divided on which way to go. Don’t pretend to speak for all Americans…
Yes Chomper, don’t act like you speak for all of us, because you don’t. At least not for the portion of the US population who can think for themselves…
Chomper, Chomper, Chomper…
Whoever said not to use sarcasm or irony in your writing because people are generally to stupid to catch on was most obviously talking about you.
No, I’m not using any sarcasm this time.
If you can believe this, one of the lame reasons offered at the time of the initial announcement was that “we can’t afford to re-train all of these people”. Since when has the government EVER given a SH*T about the taxpayers money? The agencies involved with this not only are supposed to protect us from terror attacks, they are also responsible for most of the emergency response afterward. What would happen if another attack of 911 magnitude happens along with a coordinated virus/worm or DOS attack on the DHS? Imagine the afterward with FEMA’s computers not working. This is why DHS needs the most stable and secure platform possible, not the cheapest or the most convienent to implement. A mixed setup with UNIX or LINUX servers and Mac OS X desktops will give them the security and stability needed, while allowing for an easy transition. The average desktop user should have little trouble “switching” from Office for XP to Office for Mac. Call your local newspaper, call your local talk radio station, write your Senators and Representative and express your concern. It would be cool if MacDaily News could set up an online petition concerning this matter. Remember: IT’S YOUR MONEY!!
Maybe the idea of a petition is not that bad. It could make the news on all Mac sites and I bet we could collect LOTS of signatures.
Indeed IT IS out tax money. I don’t want to see it spent on Windows FOR SECURITY??????!!!!!!
Hmm, interesting to hear GWB say that they were not going to spare any expense when it comes to national security. Many months layer, after Sept 11, we have GWB’s administration go for the cheapest, nastiest solution humanly possible bar choosing eMachines.
IIRC, there are 40,000 desktops. Why not 40,000 eMacs + either a nice, juicy mainframe or a couple of $1million+ midframes from SUN Microsystems.
Mind you, I am not surprised, GWB comes in, DOJ’s budget is cut, and a sudden “settlement” is offered to Microsoft.
It doesn’t matter about budget cuts. Like it was mentioned earlier, the US government can spend money at will. The iRaqi war was not even in the budget and cost US tax payers (many of whom did not agree with or want a war) 1 billion+ per day. For those who need help wrapping their heads around this figure, that’s 1 million X $1000.00 per day… roughly 41.7 million per hour!
Call me crazy but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to scrape together a couple more bucks (assuming it would have to cost more) to make sure the DHS has a secure computer solution. I mean DHS does stand for Department of Homeland ‘Security’ does it not>?