● 04.21.11
●● What ORNL Should Learn From CERN: Use GNU/Linux on Desktops
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security, Windows at 2:37 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) gets infiltrated because of Microsoft Windows
IF THERE IS one area where Europe is ahead of the United States, it is GNU/Linux and Free/libre software adoption (and maybe even development). The United States also lost an opportunity to create a massive hadron collider before Europe did (the famous story of how it came about can be found elsewhere on the Web, but the take-away is that physics research will advance quickly in Europe because they beat the Americans to it) and as far as one can tell, CERN uses a lot of GNU/Linux, even parts of KDE on the desktop (these days I’m coding every day and running scientific experiments on NIST data, under KDE of course). Here is what happens over at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is clearly having a critical moment with Microsoft Windows: [via]
According to the lab, the breach originated in a phishing email that was sent to about 570 employees. The emails were disguised to appear as notes about benefits changes written by the lab’s HR department. When a handful of employees clicked on the embedded link in the email, a malware program was downloaded onto their computers.The malware exploited an unpatched flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer software, and was designed to search for and steal technical information from Oak Ridge, whose engineers are in the midst of an effort to build the world’s fastest supercomputer.
As someone in Groklaw put it:
The taxpayers in the USA have spent their hard earned tax dollars to finance supercomputer research. However, those in charge have been completely irresponsible guardians of the public interest by providing Windows platforms and allowing employees to use Internet Explorer.
Time for GNU/Linux on desktops, right? Google banned Windows (internally) about a year ago. The causes were similar. █
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