MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-06-12 |
| FROM | David Sugar
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [hangout] Pass the bong dude, it's Windows hacking time!
|
Curiously, as it happens, I do still have a significent block of Continental's
stock in my portfolio. I also recall the "cutting edge IT" environment of
Continental Airlines when their entire frequent flier certificate program was
ran on a few dos based desktop PC's in a back office at Rand McNally next to
their print shop, and this was not all that long ago :).
When a managing director appears to demonstrate such complete incompetence in
his job, as a shareholder, I am deeply concerned for the value of my stock.
I think perhaps it might be appropriate for me to share my concerns with
their board. What do people here think?
On Thursday 12 June 2003 11:43 am, Dave Williams wrote:
> This delightful piece of work was found on
> http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030603S0012:
>
> From "Microsoft Launches New Security Certification"
> By Barbara Darrow, CRN
>
>
> Microsoft clearly has something to prove when it comes to secure
> computing. At a Microsoft-hosted customer panel Monday, several IT
> professionals acknowledged that the perceived insecurity of Microsoft
> products has caused huge problems, and it really doesn't matter to a
> company CEO if the problems result from faulty software or from risky IT
> practices.
>
> "It's Microsoft's fault and it's our fault also," said Gafar Lawal,
> director of architecture at Merrill Lynch. "We were vulnerable [because]
> our process did not handle the number of patches. We also took very
> seriously that our partner [Microsoft] had such a flaw in their code."
>
> But Lawal and others said Microsoft is not unique in its
> vulnerabilities. "We have a Linux server that has three times the
> critical updates as our Windows server," he said.
>
> Nathan Hanks, managing director at Continental Airlines, said, "All the
> guys hacking Windows are Linux guys." Continental was hit hard by SQL
> Slammer and "our CEO said we'd failed," Hanks said.
>
> "We cannot have undocumented servers that are responding to anonymous
> queries ... that allow buffer overruns," Hanks said. "CIOs need people
> in place to figure out why port 1434 is open on publicly exposed
> firewalls."
>
> Lawal said all companies need to have proper processes and personnel in
> place to deal with potential breaches.
>
> He also said he was impressed with Microsoft's response to the problems.
> Gordon Mangione, vice president of SQL Server, hosted a conference call
> with all the affected CTOs, and within a day Microsoft was mobilizing
> resources, he said. "We don't get that from Microsoft competitors,"
> Lawal said. "Having said that, we said some bad words."
>
> Having one vendor throat to choke is helpful in crisis situations, Hanks
> said. An IT pro can't go to the CEO and say that a server is down, "and
> hopefully some guy in Amsterdam" will get to a fix when he gets back
> from the "dope house," he said.
>
> ____________________________
> NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
> Fair Use -
> because it's either fair use or useless....
> NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
____________________________
NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
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