Honeypot

By now you have probably read the latest Honeypot Project study. Unprotected Linux boxes left on the Web stayed uncompromised for months, while Windows boxes in the same condition were hacked in minutes. (That's a glass honeypot from the William Traver Gallery in Seattle.)

The best news is that a similar study three years ago saw Linux hacked in three hours. Newer versions of Linux in the latest study were safer than older ones.

Combine this with word that the next version of VxWorks for telecommunications will support Linux (most residential gateways run VxWorks) and a unique opportunity presents itself.

That is, take wireless LANs off the Internet. Put a gateway in front of them, a hardware Linux firewall, and then run applications on that gateway which live on the network.

I'm talking here of home automation apps like security and heating, medical apps monitoring hearts and baby breathing, inventory apps so important stuff is never lost, apps that must never be turned off, apps that are always on.

Gateways have already become so cheap that sales channels can barely afford to carry them. The added value of an extensible Linux firewall would keep their price up.

And then think of what we could do with the gateway, the applications we could write and the services we could sell?

Holy Honeypot.