Thursday, January 23, 2014

UK Government Chooses the OS - the winner is...

According to this article in TechRepublic, UK's Communication-Electronics Security Group seems to have checked out Linux, Windows and Mac OS X from the stand point of security and have come up with Linux as a clear winner.

After you read the article please also read the interesting comments both pro and cons before you jump into big conclusions.

The test for cheching out the Oss consisted of the following:

•VPN
•Disk Encryption
•Authentication
•Secure Boot
•Platform Integrity and Sandboxing
•Application Whitelisting
•Malicious Code Detection and Prevention
•Security Policy Enforcement
•External Interface Protection
•Device Update Policy
•Event Collection for Enterprise Analysis
•Incident Response

The specific OSs tested were Ubuntu 12.04 LTS; Windows 8  and  Mac OS X and the summary of the rating is:

*Ubuntu 12.04 nine of the 12 tests and had zero significant risks
*Windows 8 passed seven with 1 significant risk
*Mac OS X passed eight tests with zero significant risks

Well security is a very important parameter in the choice but there are other criteria such as cost as well. With Microsoft not supporting Windows XP in the near future there may folks looking for a suitable platform and perhaps some Windows folks may go over to Linux.

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