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The monoculture bets on the defence of unknown vulnerabilities when they become known, they become a threat, but when they remain unknown, they can be ignored. Technical professionals are overwhelmed trying to defend computing targets.

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Therefore, following from the assumption that this is true (not a stretch), then yes a software monoculture is a massive threat. Null hypothesis: lessons learned in the natural world apply to the computing world. If it were, the internet would have collapsed around us years ago.

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Marcus Ranum gets this wrong - he places too much faith in the diversity of Windows software. Microsoft is adding a plethora of features, but we can't ex post facto sprinkle security over all of these diverse components. Puncuated equilibrium - sorry, missed what he said here. By reproducing at a 1% rate, it can replenish itself rapidly, and cannot be purged - nor should it. coli in your gut is highly resilient, and much less 'monoculture-esque' than it may seem. This accelerates the accumulation of mutations. We see such things in modern computer viruses.īiological mutation is non-random, and computer virus mutation is directed and strongly connected to selection processes. Worst case disease: 100% infection, rapid spread, slow onset. Compare against immunization to the influenza virus. Half life curve: vulnerabilities can never be patched with constant effort. Herd immunity: if the herd is protected as a whole from epidemics, individuals can still be vulnerable. Microsoft itself is not immune to these vulnerabilities. Some pathogens are opportunistic (AIDS), just like Nimda, Slammer, Witty, etc worms. Spam has many similarities to an autoimmune disorder, as wanted ham is lost with filtered spam. Hence, egress filtering is as important as ingress. The only protection from this is isolation, but that leads to other problems - it's not always feasible. The bigger & juicier the technological target, the more it needs to be defensive. The more advanced the organism, the more immunity is needed. The minimum gene set is the core genetic infrastructure to make life work. Examination of the genome shows that it's cheaper to keep everything than to prune what is no longer needed.īut is the biological, evolutionary cycle the only possible way to do things? Understanding the natural world lends a better understanding our technological world. Scott: Forcing diversity doesn't solve the problemĪ computing monoculture is a danger on many levels.Ĭomputing systems tend to behave like biologic systems our metaphors reflect this. Moderated by Avi Rubin, Johns Hopkins Universityĭan Geer: In any ecosystem, diversity promotes health Scott Charney, Chief Trustworthy Computing Strategist, Microsoft Corporation Dan Geer, Chief Scientist, Verdasys, Inc.

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