Date:  Thu, 11 Dec 2003 21:15:28 -0500
From:  "Mark Dodel" <madodel at ptdprolog.net>
Subject:  [VOICENWS] Net: Windows ATMs hit with virus after switch from OS/2


From: Tim Rosnau <trosnauDESPAM at telusplanet.net> 

Somewhat off topic but I thought readers of this list might be interested
in this.

It's a scathing attack of the decision to use Windows on ATMs which have
now been hit with a virus for the first time.

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,88028,00.html

> "Specific-purpose machines, like microwave ovens and until now ATM machines, never got viruses," said Schneier, author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World. "Now that they are using a general-purpose operating system, Diebold should expect a lot more of this in the future."
> 
> John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner Inc., agreed.
> 
> "It's a horrendous security mistake," he said of specific-purpose machines like ATMs running Windows. Windows was written for general-purpose computers, for which Microsoft Corp. releases security fixes on a regular basis. "I'm a lot more worried about my money than I was before this," he said.
> 
> Diebold switched from using IBM's OS/2 on its ATMs because banks were requesting Windows, said Steve Grzymkowski, senior product marketing manager at Diebold. 


-- 
Tim Rosnau

  Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born
at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.
     - Mark Twain
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