Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> http://www.xkcd.com/463/

  That's because *everything* must run on Windows. No matter how specialized
the application is (eg. voting machine) and how secure it must be (eg. voting
machine), it just *must* run on Windows. Oh, and of course the connection
between the machine and the server *must* happen through regular TCP/IP on
a public network. Because, you know, there's no other way of doing it.

  I can imagine a developer meeting:

Boss: "So what measures have we taken to make these voting machines secure?
Which virus scanning software would be the best? How about firewalls?"

Experienced developer: "But sir, wouldn't it be better if we used a
specialized computer which is *not* the target of major hacker attacks
and which has been used for decades on high-security military applications
which need the utmost security? For example some IBM or Sun unix machine?
And given that the only use of these voting machines is to communicate
with the central voting server, wouldn't it be more secure to build a
private netword which is completely isolated from the internet? Especially
since this is a government-funded project and our budget is humongous."

Boss: "No, no! It *must* use Windows. Windows is as secure as it gets."

Developer: "As secure as it gets? You just talked about virus scanners and
firewalls."

Boss: "Windows is cheap. We have better use for the money than to spend it
on expensive hardware and specialized software and private networks."

Developer: "Sir, this is a government-funded project. We must report every
single spent dollar. What else can be 'better use' of that money than
security?"

Boss: "Don't talk back to me like that or you will get fired! We will use
Windows, and that's final."

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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