Hackers Begin Race To Break New Vista Software For Financial Gain
Posted January 31, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
What’s that old expression about waving a red flag in front of a bull?
It’s the perfect analogy as a new war is about to be launched in earnest between Microsoft and thousands of hackers worldwide.
On Tuesday we told you about the launch of the software giant’s new operating system called Windows Vista. Microsoft has spent $6 billion and five years developing the product and expects it to eventually become the new standard for 95 percent of the planet’s PCs.
It comes with a host of features never available before – including a long promised and much needed guarantee of better security and the ability to deflect intruders and spyware.
But that claim already has many hackers drooling.
They’ve been looking for ways to disprove Microsoft’s claims since the company first announced the product was coming to market and obtained illegal copies of it. But now that it’s out in earnest, the battle is expected to reach new heights.
In its skewed way, fame, money and prestige await those who become the first to infiltrate the system, and there’s no shortage of people already trying.
“For sure, people are hammering away on it,” agrees Jeff Moss, organizer of hacking convention Defcon. “If you are a bad guy and you find a problem, you have a way to spread your malware and spyware.”
Microsoft acknowledges there’s no system that’s completely hack-proof and insists Vista is no different.
“We know from the outset that we won’t get the software code 100 percent right,” admits senior product manager Stephen Toulouse. “No one does in the entire software industry … but Windows Vista has multiple layers of defence.”
Those “multiple layers” include blocking the installation of malicious programs, the ability to automatically update its anti-spyware program, a better firewall, and on some versions, software that will lock a hard drive if the computer is ever lost or stolen.
But experts caution those looking for better security to remember that just because the door is closed doesn’t means a window – or in this case – some Windows – aren’t still open.
Programs like Internet Explorer and Outlook still contain a lot of holes that can be exploited regardless of the operating system in use.
And we may not hear about a lot of the vulnerabilities right away, because Vista doesn’t have that many customers yet.
But it’s clear the race to be first in the world to proclaim the system broken is a twisted prize many want to claim.
“Being the first to write an exploit for Vista is something a lot of people would like to do,” points out cyber security expert Johannes Ullrich. “But ultimately any exploit will be used for financial gain.”
And for hackers, that’s unfortunately a new Vista they look forward to seeing.
Sign up for a del.icio.us account here to save your bookmarks for free online.
