Dragan on Security

Poll “Primary motives for hacking are” which was open on this blog since December 21, 2007 to March 31, 2008 is closed now. Based on answers of visitors, who took opportunity to vote in the poll, main reason why hackers (malicious ones) are attacking is because they take it as intellectual challenge. Next reason is money etc.

Here is summary of results.

As it was said in introductory post for poll, it is based on Australian government Institute of Criminology i.e. its High tech crime centre classification. You can see paper (linked in blog post also) here.

There were polemic about definition of hackers and is that correct to say that hackers are malicious. Many people think that definition of hackers mean that they “wear white hat” i.e. hackers are not driven by malicious motives. However, crackers are ones who “wear black hat” i.e. they are supposed to be malicious, according that opinion. Also, some people mentioned that poll lacks precise definition of hacking and description of hacker and cracker difference for sake of this poll.

This poll is about public opinion - what people think about hackers and their motives, so it was left to opinions and thoughts of everyone and a little bit imprecise (intentionally). :)

You can look into Merriam-Webster’s dictionary definition of hacker – it may be interesting.

I’ve added a new poll to this blog. The aim of the poll is to see what is the structure of the blog visitors according their (your) individual opinion and experience in the field of security knowledge. There is no guidance and explanation of the given choices. You are the one who sets measurement units, decides and rates your own knowledge and experience according to it.

Question is: “Rate your computer security knowledge and experience”, and possible answers are:

• None
• Beginner
• Moderate
• Expert
• Guru

Vote and enjoy visiting often and seeing how others vote. Polls started today and it is planned to be open 3 months i.e. by end of June 2008.

An earlier poll “Hacking Motives” expired last night (March 31, 2008). I am going to discuss results in future post on this blog.

Poll “The Most Secure Operating Systems Family is?” has been closed on January 31st, 2008, after it was opened for voting more then 3 months, as planned. You had chance to vote for one of today’s popular (or less popular) operating systems.

Results of poll are here:

• Linux (24.44%, 110 Votes)
• BSD UNIX (23.11%, 104 Votes)
• Solaris (19.33%, 87 Votes)
• Mac OS X (17.11%, 77 Votes)
• MS Windows (16.00%, 72 Votes)

Total Voters: 450

In graphic presentation it looks like:

It is obvious that Linux funs were very eager to vote for their favorite. It is also obvious that majority of voters in this poll share belief that Unix-like operating systems are far more secure that Windows. Microsoft has pretty low reputation among people that took opportunity to vote in this poll.

Do not miss opportunity to vote in poll about primary motives for hacking.

I’ve put poll on this blog to find out what is public opinion on primary motives for hacking.  There are six possible choices and you can choose one according your opinion. Answers are based on Australian government Institute of Criminology i.e. its High tech crime centre classification. You can see paper here and vote in box with yellow background at right sidebar.

Design by MASSVision.

I found cool plugin for WordPress that gives possibility to have polls in blog. If you want this plugin for your blog, you can find it here. Plugin is very easy for use and I put my first question just as an experiment. Question is “The most secure operating systems family is:” and possible answers are:

• MS Windows
• Mac OS X
• Linux
• Solaris
• BSD UNIX

Hopefully you will like it and vote. After voting you can see results of this pool. In future I will think about some more interesting and intricate questions for pools. This is just an experiment. If you have good ideas for future pools, feel free to leave comment.