Interesting story this morning on the BBC: it appears that some unidentified “nation state” has put huge efforts into creating a sophisticated worm with “incredible amount of code” “probably targeting “high value” infrastructure in Iran”. Read the full BBC story here; its confirmed by NZZ here and here in English. The key sentence in the BBC report is this:” it infects Windows machines via USB keys“.
That’s right, this super-dooper-worm can only infect Windows based machines. The Windows operating system has a long and unmachted record of being the worst operating system ever designed. Not only does it have a history of collaboration with the US NSA, but all its individual components (Outlook, Word, ISS, the registry, the WinAPI, etc) are terribly designed and highly prone to failures, flaws, bugs and corruption (I will spare you the technical details). In contrast, there are other operating systems out there which are highly stable and secure, and which are available at zero cost: GNU/Linux of course, but also the three BSDs – OpenBSD, FreeBSD and NetBSD. For a price, you can also get Mac OSX which, being based on BSD, is also far superior to anything Microsoft ever produced (all these operating systems are either based on, or derived from, the UNIX family of operating systems which typically run on larger computers).
Furthermore, Windows is what is called “bloatware”: the underlying code of Microsoft applications is inevitably large (which is not a quality, the rule of thumb being that each time you double the size of the source code, the number of bugs in it *squares*!) and requires recent, powerful and expensive hardware to run.
The amount of money wasted by any organization using Windows is absolutely staggering. Think about it:
1) Being very crash-prone, Windows requires constant attention for system administrators just to keep it running.
2) Being highly insecure, Windows requires constant and sophisticated efforts by system administrators to keep it as secure as possible.
3) Windows licenses are cumbersome to administer and expensive to pay for.
4) Windows bloatware running hardware being cutting edge is expensive to procure and maintain.
5) Microsoft software is either expensive to purchase or illegal to use without a license.
And yes, the Empire can easily target any computer running windows to create havoc in any country or organization it wants to target.
You would think that with that kind of nightmare scenario, organizations such as Press TV or al-Manar, to pick to examples, would avoid *any* Microsoft product like the plague. You would be wrong.
Let’s check what kind of web servers Press TV and al-Manar are is running (using the Netcraft website):
Press TV: Microsoft-IIS on Windows Server 2003
al-Manar: Microsoft-IIS on Windows Server 2003
Amazingly, these two websites are running the same toxic witches’ brew of IIS on Windows Server 2003. Which is quite amazing considering that the Press TV servers are run by Irnetco on behalf of the Alalam News IT Department while al-Manar seems to have it’s own IT department and hosting.
But that’s not all, things get worse once you get to their actual websites. Al-Manar streams its video signal in the ASPX format which comes from its hyper-proprietary ASP.NET framework. What about Press-TV? Press TV offers a choice of Flash and MMS formats. While MMS is 100% Microsoft, Flash is not, but that is not much of a consolation since Flash is also a terrible format, which uses up a huge amount of memory and which is almost as bad as anything produced by Microsoft. Alas, Flash is still very ubiquitous and is found on most websites offering video.
Bottom line, not only do Press TV and al-Manar use the absolutely worst (and expensive!) technology out there, they are pushing their supporters to do likewise.
Is that not absolutely crazy?
And its not like we are talking rocket science here, the solution is really simple: run an Apache webserver on a *BSD or Linux server, offer video streaming in various formats like, for example, DemocracyNow! does and run all your other computers (desktops, file and printer servers) on Debian or Ubuntu GNU/Linux. This is nothing new, it’s just a variation of the so-called the “LAMP” technology. As for the users, they should all be encouraged to use Ubuntu (with the OpenOffice Suite), by far the best and easiest operating system for desktops ever created.
[Yes, 10 years ago it took the equivalent to a PhD. in computer science to run GNU/Linux systems (such as Slackware or Debian). Nowadays, I can personally attest that Ubuntu is far, far FAR easier to install, configure and use than WindowsXP. Finally, almost all Windows applications have equivalent, and often better, in the world of free software. Check here, here, here and here for details]
As an aside, I would note that ALL the so-called “BRIC” countries have already made a fundamental and strategic decision to switch to free software and free themselves from the horrors of “Microsoft-world”.
Is anybody at Press TV or al-Manar paying attention?
Maybe you guys want to drop them a note?
“And yes, the Empire can easily target any computer running windows to create havoc in any country or organization it wants to target.”
That is true. I don’t know much about other countries, but I recently read in RIA Novosti that Russia began developing its own national OS, based on Linux, for use in all state and government computers. Educational institutions will also use it.
Just out of curiosity, I checked Netcraft and saw that Russia’s main new agency (RIA Novosti) runs on Linux. I guess the Russians are much more ahead in this than the Iranians – though I remember that RIAN’s page was hacked a few times during the South Ossetian war.
@Carlo: yes, the Russian have just announced that they are going to follow China’s example and create their own version of a free operating system based, as the Chinese one, on Linux.
though I remember that RIAN’s page was hacked a few times during the South Ossetian war.
I don’t think so. What happened is that too many incoming connections overwhelm the server and end up being a so called Denial Of Service “attack” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack). Such attacks CAN be deliberate and I don’t remember if in the case of RIAN that was deliberate or not. “Hacking” (which should be called “cracking” really, as hacking is just a creative way to find a solution) implies more than just a DoS. It implies, for example, de-facing, a webpage like what was done to the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs during that war (http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2008/08/georgian-foreign-ministry-website.html).
BTW – I know that Lula is a champion of free software, along with Chavez, by the way.
In the capitalist world, most key computers already run on Linux, including Google, Amazon, NYSE, Oracle, etc. etc. etc. Check out this neat (if dated) article:
http://www.focus.com/fyi/information-technology/50-places-linux-running-you-might-not-expect/
Its just in the Middle-East that there is some kind of mental blockage I suppose…
@Carlo & everybody:
check out this:
http://blogs.computerworld.com/15111/linux_powers_the_fastest_computers_on_the_planet
and this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_Linux
Yep. 90% of the 500 fastest supercomputers on the planet run on Linux, and so do many of your small daily appliances including, possibly your cellphone or router.
:-)
never get answers from presstv
i think they mean well and do some great interviews and news coverage, but are poor on PR. reminds me of the good ol’ Soviets. ha, ha.
i did contact Al Alam a couple of times by email and they replied . I also wanted to participate in a debate on tv (asking a guest a question ) they took my number and called me back within minutes .
i did contact Al Alam a couple of times by email and they replied . I also wanted to participate in a debate on tv (asking a guest a question ) they took my number and called me back within minutes .
@eric: I would gave Press TV a better grade than “Soviet-like” :-)
Really, they do a lot of stuff which is excellent, and a lot of very good reporting. Their website, however, sucks, not only because it is M$ Windoze based, but even the contents are mostly too superficial, too short, poorly archived, etc. etc. etc.
I won’t even go into the al-Manar website which is in many ways even worse.
I think that these guys are totally unaware of how important the Internet is and how they could use it effectively. There are literally HUNDRED of things which al-Manar or the Resistance’s website (http://english.moqawama.org/) could do to make themselves more attractive, more relevant, more interesting and more informative. I would note that AT LEAST the Resistance’s website is running Apache on Linux, so kudos to them on that!
@fatima: Al Alam itself, maybe better, but all they do is hold the Domain Name for Press TV. But getting reply out of Press TV proper or al-Manar is something I never succeeded so far.
apprpriate to give a shout out to parsix.org on this thread. In many ways it’s better than ubuntu, although the lack of huge userbase is an issue.
Iran also announced, about two years ago i think, that they would be developing their own operating system(linux based i think) for government offices, and moving away from linux, but I haven’t heard any follow up.
Windows and MS software is very popular in Iran because in that country, all software costs the same, which is to say 0$.
Masoud
The quality of Presstv’s website changes dramatically with time. It really went downhill after the elections. But i think the content they are publishing now is quite good
Masoud
@Masoud: apprpriate to give a shout out to parsix.org on this thread
Being based on Kanotix, which used to be one of my favorite live-CDs, and on Debian, the “Mother of all good distros” IMHO, Parsix looks good indeed. I did not know about this “Gift from Ancient Persia” distro, and I am delighted to hear about it. That is the beauty and power of free software, you can adapt it to your national, local and even individual needs and preferences. I hope that Iran follows the BRICs and also develops its own, free, operating system. This is not only far cheaper, but also far safer.
Windows and MS software is very popular in Iran because in that country, all software costs the same, which is to say 0$.
But that is an illogical argument: Parsix is zero-cost too, as are all the versions of GNU/Linux or BSD. And using M$ Windoze means more powerful and therefore expensive hardware. And if you accept that “time is money” then the time/money wasted on Windoze problems is absolutely horrifying.
There is no rational or cost-effective way to use M$ Windoze software.
just to round off this discussion:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/25/iran-cyber-hacking-nuclear-plants
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Stuxnet works by exploiting previously unknown security holes in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It then seeks out a component, called Simatic WinCC, manufactured by Siemens, which controls factory operations. Siemens was involved in the design of the Bushehr plant.
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Looks like they need their own version of Linux as well, as well as other software …
@ishamid: thanks for the info about specifics. That figures – the US has often used non-US companies to inject their worms, backdoors, etc. into the IT networks of the countries the US targets. Ditto for Israel.