Re: Proxies, opensource and the general market: what's wrong with us?

[david () lang hm]

On Mon, 2 May 2011, Darren Reed wrote:

> On  2/05/11 08:51 AM, ArkanoiD wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 12:50:35PM -0700, Darren Reed wrote:
> > > I think that what's happened is the relevant open source
> > > security tools for today are no longer proxies or packet
> > > filters but plugins for your web browser.
> >
> > [skipped]
> >
> > Sure. But I still do not see why does it affect firewalls, which are
> > still there.
>
> What's sexy about working on an open source firewall
> thing that a few people might download and use vs
> working on a plugin for firefox that gets 100,000
> downloads every month?
>
> Perhaps a more relevant problem to consider is that
> as we (as a society) move to accessing the Internet
> directly, from devices such as our phones, the threat
> model and solutions used to address that need to be
> rethought in the context of what the device's operating
> system needs to have running and protected.

there are two halves to security

protecting the consumer endpoint

protecting the servers the consumers are accessing

(well, technically there's a third category of protecting business to 
business communication, but that is so similar to protecting servers that 
I don't think it's worth treating separately)


targeting consumers is gathering information in retail quantities (even 
with automation it's a lot of data, and using it generates a lot of 
traffic)

targeting the servers is gathering information in wholesale quantities, 
and potentially allows functions that just aren't available through the 
retail interfaces.

both need to be protected.

David Lang


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