Are our programs spying on us?

It’s certainly not news if a security expert notes a flaw in Windows, and seeming less so nowadays regarding Macs, but all Windows, Linux and Macintosh computers were called fundamentally insecure at the AusCert 2007 conference Monday by Ivan Krstic, director of security architecture for the One Laptop per Child project.

Krstic said the problem with all modern desktop operating system is that they give programs the same permissions and privileges as the computer’s user.

There are a bunch of programs that ship with all major operating systems–including Linux, Mac OS and Windows–that can format your hard drive, spy on your computer, spy on you with your microphone and camera, and turn over control of your computer to third parties.

Um, okay. So which included programs can do these evil things? And the answer is (don’t laugh): Minesweeper.

This is no exaggeration. There is nothing in place to say that Minesweeper cannot do these things. That tells me something is pretty badly broken.

So does that mean ‘there is nothing in place to say that’ OS X’s Chess game cannot format my hard drive or turn over control of my Mac to third parties? Gee, I guess I’ll have to stop playing until Apple completely rewrites the entire Unix-derived permissions scheme.

Expert: IT industry has failed in desktop security

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