Firewall Wizards mailing list archives
Re: You'll never get fired for recommending IBM - sorry - Microsoft
From: "Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr () ranum com>
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 19:57:33 -0500
Regarding monoculture, let me use a common analogy. My car is no more or less secure than any other
Hang on a second!! "Monoculture" in *computing* is an analogy already!! Don't use one analogy to try to bolster another one!! Arguing by analogy is deceptive, since the choice of analogy can conceal or distort information. Generally analogies are used to illustrate - but they're only really useful if you're dealing with concepts that nobody has established referents for. That's not the case when computer security practitioners are talking with other computer security practitioners. I wrote a brief rant that explains some of my objections to the use of "monoculture" analogy in computer security. See: http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/rants/monoculture.html Anyhow, I think "monoculture" is a flawed analogy. Trying to use an automotive analogy to explain away flaws is a flawed analogy is too many levels of indirection for my taste! Why can't we just talk about computer security when we're trying to talk about computer security? ;) mjr. _______________________________________________ firewall-wizards mailing list firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com http://honor.icsalabs.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
Current thread:
- You'll never get fired for recommending IBM - sorry - Microsoft MHawkins (Dec 13)
- Re: You'll never get fired for recommending IBM - sorry - Microsoft Breno Jacinto (Dec 16)
- Re: You'll never get fired for recommending IBM - sorry - Microsoft Marcus J. Ranum (Dec 16)
- Re: You'll never get fired for recommending IBM - sorry - Microsoft Breno Jacinto (Dec 16)