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The security panel, moderated by Mike Masterson, of Taos Mountain Software was one of the more popular sessions. The panel consisted of Bridget Allison, of Network Appliances, Jeremy Allison, of Whistle Communications (Samba), Peter Kochs, of Digitivity, and Peter Brundett, Microsoft Program Manager for the NT5 security implementation.
A little aside here… I was always taught that ‘in simplicity lies security’. As a general rule, the more code you write, the less secure your application is likely to be. I think ‘sendmail’ has taught us all a lesson in the importance of ‘auditable’ code. To be fair, sendmail has come a long way and version 8 is a far cry from the earlier sendmail ‘patchclub’ nightmare.
NT, as an operating system and NOT a political statement, is quickly approaching the point where not only will it be impossible to audit the code (most of it is proprietary and you can’t get source), but it’s impossible to audit the behavior of the system RUNNING the code. The complex interdependencies of the subsystems makes it difficult (if not impossible) to determine WHAT IS DOING WHAT. No amount of point and click GUI interfaces are going to fix this. But hey, I could be wrong…!
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