A logical proposal

Yesterday I talked about the risk to the computing world inherent in one platform everywhere. Many people have suggested that this is why Macs and other platforms should be tossed into the mix. Yes, that would help but trying to do that in the enterprise could be a nightmare.

So here is my proposal for IT departments that I think is completely logical.

Use Microsoft products on the desktop. Use other systems on:

-Servers. Lets face it, there are plenty of platforms with much better track records for reliability and uptime. This is what Sun Microsystems, HP, and IBM are all about.

-Handhelds. There are great platforms for handhelds. Palm for instance.

-Phones. Anything but Microsoft. What are you thinking????

-Medical devices. Pick your platform based on infrequency of security patch announcements. It is too expensive and time consuming to comply with FDA requirements every time you have to update the software.

-ATMs. Do yourself a favor. You do not want things that touch money to run Microsoft OS’s.

-SCADA networks. Just say no to Windows. Critical infrastructure such as power, water, gas, emergency communication should be well separated from the monoculture of the rest of the world.

This works for IT departments. They already have different people managing desktops than the folks managing the servers.

For individuals. Sure, switch platforms! Take advantage of being a minority in a monoculture. The bad guys don’t spend much effort writing stuff for Mac’s.

For Microsoft: Self Fission. Split the company up. Create separate platforms for each of these categories. Start with some new platform. The next time you target a new category (gaming consoles, cell phones, embedded systems) develop a separate platform for it.

Originally published at www.threatchaos.com  

Maybe not a modest proposal, but certainly a logical one.