Let’s not clutter up PatB’s thread with this.[…] If interested start a new thread for this techy stuff.
Consider it done.
As well as geeky enjoyment and the very real privacy issues, there is a pretty clear campaign to try and impose a constrained set of meanings upon Cyber Security. Setting aside the usual stuff about porn and “think of the poor children”, there is a technocratic (Will To Power) aspect to this.
The NCSC (UK National Cyber Security Centre) is next week updating it’s Cyber Essentials framework so it’s a live issue in my workplace (one of my roles being Data Management). I noticed that Linux Ubuntu (Long Term Supported version=LTS) seems to be the only distro they have opined upon:
That’s understandable to some extent but might alert us to some elements in the LTS that are ‘approved’ e.g. back doors. I make no specific allegations but will be reading the platform guide for sure. (Personally I’ve always tended to stick to the LTS simply because I’m not techy enough to fix less-famous distros).
“Consider whether you will deploy [antivirus or other security software] on Ubuntu, as several third-party anti-malware products exist which attempt to detect malicious code for this platform”.
Windows, and indeed Mac OS, are like a sieve when it comes to security. Linux, whilst not perfect, has got to be the best with regard to securing your computer. This is just my opinion.
What does ‘Data Management’ mean? (sorry to sound naive)
Rob Braxman (mentioned in the original thread) has done a review of about 10 Linux distro’s which I can’t seem to find a link to but this one explains why Linux is so confusing to the non techies.
It kind of means what my managers want it to mean, but essentially it’s ensuring appropriate records are kept, in appropriate ways, that minimize risk of breaches of privacy etc. Also ensuring that people can find what they need to do their jobs: structuring records, data, etc. Our record keeping has been… patchy.
In my view the conventional operating systems are intentionally leaky so that no one can be genuinely private. Because Linux is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) the White Hats can inspect what’s going on and ensure back doors are minimised. Personally I have no expertise in that area and used Ubuntu because it has a good GUI (Nautilus).
Constraining the Cyber Essentials accreditation to supported platforms is pragmatic, on the face of it, but could also be a way of ensuring that unapproved ways into networks are not blocked. That way the spooks can ensure We Are All Safe.
I’m nowhere near that techy! However I find myself on the coal face when it comes to loading Linux OS over Windows and Mac OS.
I’m about to do another one tomorrow. This is an old MacBook Pro (circa 2012). It’s Intel 64 bit, so should have no problems with a Linux OS installation.
That said, loading Linux onto a Mac machine, despite the affinity, is often more difficult than loading it on to a Windows machine.
Anyone who runs Windows 10 is completely insane (a little bit of editorialising there).
Though I agree in many ways, Windoze has the corporate and many academic networks firmly in its fists making W10 a necessary evil. Not tried 11 yet. M$ haven’t (yet) cracked web servers though, where Apache/nginx are still, as far as I know, quite some way ahead. Red Hat Linux has a modest footprint at A Certain Uni. Mostly for doing science, pardon the unironic usage.
I gather M$ paid a silly amount of cash to buy Activision Blizzard, somewhere north of $65bn iirc. Mainly gaming and VR stuff, I think.
Karen, if interested, the Linux Mint load I did today onto a MacBook Pro was ‘a little bit problematic’ (that’s been my stock phrase over the last year or so!).
It’s said that it’s easier to load Linux OS onto a Mac machine than a Windows machine. That doesn’t always prove to be so.
For some reason, today the Linux wi-fi drivers didn’t load onto the MacBook Pro machine: Linux Mint up and running, but no internet connection. Fortunately, here we have a gizmo that puts the internet through the house wiring, so I was able to use an ethernet connection to get the MacBook Pro connected to the internet (via an ethernet - USB convertor).
First thing was to ‘Update Drivers’. This solved the wi-fi connection problem. Second thing was to update all software. This took the best part of 40 minutes to download, followed by another 20 minutes to install it all.
The person who owns this MacBook Pro is very pleased with the Linux Mint installation. It’s a decade old machine that recently had a hard drive crash due to Mac OS software glitches. It will be interesting to see how this old, clapped-out laptop fares with a Linux OS.
Oh, and one thing I’ll add about the MacBook Pro is that the screen quality is par excellence.
I’ve been staring at that damn screen for a large part of the day.
