MI-80

On this day, in 1775, our Continental Congress called forth by resolution a Corps of Marines. That was the birth of the United States Marine Corps, and from its humble beginnings at Tun Tavern to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan today, there is no mistaking a Marine.

To begin to understand why the Corps holds its birthday so sacred, you must begin to understand the Marines’ history. As the Marine Corps Hymn goes, “From the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli,” the Corps has distinguished itself on battlefields across many foreign shores in both war and peace. Over 40,000 Marines have given the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our freedom, and over another 200,000 wounded. These wounds are not just physical, but mental and spiritual as well. Every Marine who has served in combat comes back with something they would rather forget, and they carry it with them the rest of their lives.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is at it again. After the last competition to develop a new encryption standard to replace the aging Data Encryption Standard (DES), NIST's in full swing hosting the forum to develop a next-generation hash function.

Hash functions form the backbone of modern information security by letting you create unique digital fingerprints of your data. Encryption ensures no one else can read your data, but hashes allow you to validate who is on the other side of the conversation and to tell if someone alters your data. However, amazingly, hashes have never undergone the scrutiny that encryption algorithms have. The most common hash functions today were developed by private companies or by government agencies like the National Security Agency developed SHA family of functions. A drawn out, public competition has never been held for hashes.

Having used Linux solely for nearly four years now, I've gained a respect for what Linux can and can't do. By no means is it the perfect solution for every problem, but there are some misconceptions heard again and again that I plan to set straight.

1. Linux is Behind the Times

One comment heard often is “Linux was five years behind XP, and it's ten years behind Vista!” Well, here are some facts:

• Windows began separating the basic user from the administrator account by default in Vista, over 15 years behind Linux.
• Windows added a firewall in 2001, over seven years behind Linux's 1994 addition of ipchains.
• Linux was the first operating system with x86_64 support, beating Windows XP Pro x64 by two years.
• Windows added an attractive 3D accelerated graphical interface in Vista, a full year behind Linux's XGL.
• Linux's package management system can install, uninstall, and update software from one interface. Everything installed from Apache to OpenOffice.org and Quake 4 may be updated with one press. Windows has nothing like this on the road map.

And Linux isn't slowing down. The Xen project has added an incredible level of virtualization to Linux, with more work going into the kernels development to add enterprise ready virtualization built-in. Microsoft promised built-in Xen-like virtualization in Windows Server 2008 next year, but has announced that feature has been delayed and should be available sometime after launch, possibly in its first service pack, meaning Linux will lead with built-in virtualization by at least a couple of years before Windows catches up.

Back in early 2003 I was reading about Microsoft's Palladium initiative, later renamed the Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB), and especially the fact that Trusted Computing really should not be mentioned in the same sentence as security. Well come a few years later and that is truer than ever. If you ever looked at NGSCB, it is soon clear that its intent is not to secure our computers from others, but rather to secure content providers from us. While the white papers and overviews often talk about how great Trusted Computing is, they often leave out how it is really being implemented. Do not get me wrong, Trusted Computing does have potential.