[GTALUG] why reliable linux hasn't gained more market share?

[David Collier-Brown]

On 2024-07-24 20:41, Ron / BCLUG via talk wrote:
> Steve Petrie via talk wrote on 2024-07-23 07:47:
>
>> Actually I'm REALLY GLAD that linux owns such a tiny share of the 
>> desktop PC market. This means that evil virus hackers have almost 
>> ZERO incentive to invest their time crafting attacks on linux desktops.
>
> I'd say you've got it backwards - the high value targets are the 
> servers more so than the desktops.
>

We used to worry a lot about someone getting into a salesperson's 
laptop, and using that to get to our backbone.  We created a 
windows-only network for them, with mandatory access control and 
physical separation.

  At least one closely-regulated customer wouldn't let anything /intel/, 
much less PC, onto their back end networks Only a colleague and I who 
had SPARC laptops had direct access to the data center from the outside. 
Everyone else had to log in to a gateway box and work from the 
command-line.  (For some reason they didn't have Macs)

The underlying problem is called "transitive trust", where the attacker 
works through layer after layer because they each trust him/a bit too 
much/. And the first step is always a salesperson's laptop (:-))

--dave

-- 
David Collier-Brown,         | Always do right. This will gratify
System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest
davecb at spamcop.net            |              -- Mark Twain
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