● 04.27.09

●● Why Vista 7 Could be the Least Secure Operating System Ever

Posted in Microsoft, Security, Vista 7, Windows at 3:09 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Hybridising a recipe for trouble

Inheriting Windows XP’s problems

Summary: If Vista 7 runs XP, how does that improve security?

FOR those who were led to believe that Conficker is begone, here is a wake-up call from Reuters:

A malicious software program known as Conficker that many feared would wreak havoc on April 1 is slowly being activated, weeks after being dismissed as a false alarm, security experts said.Conficker, also known as Downadup or Kido, is quietly turning thousands of personal computers into servers of e-mail spam and installing spyware, they said.

Conficker affected pretty much every version of Windows and none of this is going to change (see links at the bottom).

Vista 7 is not being released any time soon, but it has already been rendered hijackable several times in recent months [1, 2, 3, 4]. Nothing ever changes other than the message (marketing)

Can Microsoft finally offer value to customers? Well, if offering a product from 2001 counts as value, then maybe. As DaemonFC put it, “Do you ever wish you could run your XP software at half the speed after paying another few hundred bucks?” That’s exactly what Microsoft seems to be doing right now.

Microsoft Buttmonkey and Windows Enthusiast (Is there a difference?) Paul Thurott has posted on the latest “feature” of Windows 7, a full copy of XP in every garage!Yes that’s right. Windows is now so incompatible with….Windows, that you need to run two full copies at once to get XP compatibility.

There is other coverage of this, but it mostly comes from people who promote Microsoft for a living, so it’s filled with spin.

So, here is Microsoft’s offer: “Run Windows XP or virtualise XP under another more expensive operating system that only consumes resources unnecessarily.” This surely confirms that program/driver compatibility will continue to be poor in Vista 7. It’s just bound to disappoint.

But here is the main point: by keeping Windows XP around Microsoft is begging for trouble. In the words of oiaohm, “Microsoft in windows 7 is now forced to virtualise XP. So all the viruses of XP will remain around.”

Yes, people will have two systems to keep up to date and hope that they can patch. How does that make Vista 7 any more secure than predecessors? It’s only an aggregation of vulnerabilities. █

More on Conficker

Microsoft’s Blame-Shifting Strategy Precedes More TroubleLeave Microsoft AloneNever Blame Microsoft, Blame Users and ExploitsBotnets and Bounties Versus Real SecurityIs Windows to Blame for Cracking of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)?Windows Problems Take Down Airplanes, JFK Airport, Houston Municipal CourtsTurkey, France, United Stated Under Attack by Microsoft Windows InsecuritiesMicrosoft Adopts Malware Techniques to Advance .NETWindows Botnets Go Out of Control, Obama Web Site Delivers Windows MalwareOne Windows Worm, One Week, and Possibly 250,000,000+ New Windows ZombiesDeath by Microsoft WindowsUNIX/Linux Offer More Security Than Windows: EvidenceUS Army Becomes Zombies Army; London Hospitals Still Ill (Windows Viruses)Eye on Microsoft: Another Messy Week for Security

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