O'Reilly Network: The Next 50 Years of Computer Security: An Interview with Alan Cox

"Edd Dumbill: You're talking about the next 50 years of computer security at EuroOSCON. How would you sum up the current state of computer security?

"Alan Cox: It is beginning to improve, but at the moment computer security is rather basic and mostly reactive. Systems fail absolutely rather than degrade. We are still in a world where an attack like the slammer worm combined with a PC BIOS eraser or disk locking tool could wipe out half the PCs exposed to the internet in a few hours. In a sense we are fortunate that most attackers want to control and use systems they attack rather than destroy them..."

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Related Stories:

• MozillaQuest: Alan Cox, Richard Gooch, and David Weinehall Respond to SCO's Linux-Related Claims(Mar 19, 2003)
• ZDNet Australia: Interview with Alan Cox(Jan 27, 2003)
• Slashdot.org: Alan Cox Talks about Laws... and Linux(May 20, 2002)