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Are We Tired Of Easy Yet?
A.P. Lawrence
Contributing Writer
2006-08-03
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I wish this morning's security issues were unexpected...
- Intel Centrino Vulnerabilities
- Hijacking a Macbook in 60 Seconds or Less
What these are about is exploiting bad wireless drivers in both Windows and Mac notebooks. The articles blame it on OS vendors cobbling in code written by hardware folks. They say:
"The main problem here is that device drivers are a funny mix of stuff put together by hardware and software developers, and these guys are often under the gun to produce the code that will power products that the manufacturer is often in a hurry to get to market."
OK, but isn't the larger issue "ease of use"? Why is the default for wireless to go looking for networks to join? To make it "easy" for the user, of course. We wouldn't want dumb users having to think about whether they WANTED to search for networks - nope, that would be "hard".
OK, yeah, there are security exploits that have nothing to do with ease of use. But it seems to me that too many do flow from that mindset: automatic connections, zeroconf, no thinking, nothing to set, just let the computer do its own thing. Passwords? Too hard to remember, let's have single sign on. Confirmation of possibly dangerous actions? Let's just do it..
Aaarghh. Are we sick of this yet?
*Originally published at APLawrence.com
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About the Author:
A.P. Lawrence provides SCO Unix and Linux consulting services http://www.pcunix.com
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