Avie? Tevanian before the House Subcommittee on Technology
Written Testimony of Avadis ?Avie? Tevanian, Jr. Ph.D. on behalf of Apple Computer, Inc. before the House Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census June 16, 2004
http://reform.house.gov/UploadedFile...Testimony1.pdf
http://reform.house.gov/UploadedFile...Testimony1.pdf
Quote:
Moreover, I would urge the Committee to consider the significant vulnerability within many enterprises, including most government agencies, that results from having essentially a homogeneous operating environment. When security has been breached at the enterprise level, or a malicious virus has been unleashed inside an organization, it often propagates itself very rapidly because the organization is configured using one operating system and platform for many systems and applications. This homogenous configuration means that one worm could bring down an entire organization very rapidly, costing millions of dollars and hours, if not days, in productivity. While, with the strong leadership of this Subcommittee, most agencies have implemented redundant systems, disaster recovery plans and other forms of back up, if all the systems are the same, there is significant risk none will survive, even though they may be geographically isolated or have substantial external layers of security.
The Congress should approach this very real security vulnerability by encouraging agencies to achieve cyber-diversity. Organizations should consider adding a mix of interoperable computer systems to their networks such that when one system is attacked, another system will remain up and functioning within the organization on its network. Unfortunately, many organizations hold on to an obsolete belief that differing computer systems, such as Windows PCs and Macs cannot interoperate or are costly to administer when used together. Our implementation of Mac OS X has focused on open industry standards and formats. When possible, we provide direct compatibility with Windows-based PCs and servers. As a result, a Macintosh fits in quite easily with Windows and UNIX networks. We firmly believe that any perceived short term administrative efficiencies and/or cost savings identified by standardizing on one platform is more than offset by the security risk and productivity losses associated with having a thoroughly homogeneous environment that is vulnerable to attack.
Moreover, I would urge the Committee to consider the significant vulnerability within many enterprises, including most government agencies, that results from having essentially a homogeneous operating environment. When security has been breached at the enterprise level, or a malicious virus has been unleashed inside an organization, it often propagates itself very rapidly because the organization is configured using one operating system and platform for many systems and applications. This homogenous configuration means that one worm could bring down an entire organization very rapidly, costing millions of dollars and hours, if not days, in productivity. While, with the strong leadership of this Subcommittee, most agencies have implemented redundant systems, disaster recovery plans and other forms of back up, if all the systems are the same, there is significant risk none will survive, even though they may be geographically isolated or have substantial external layers of security.
The Congress should approach this very real security vulnerability by encouraging agencies to achieve cyber-diversity. Organizations should consider adding a mix of interoperable computer systems to their networks such that when one system is attacked, another system will remain up and functioning within the organization on its network. Unfortunately, many organizations hold on to an obsolete belief that differing computer systems, such as Windows PCs and Macs cannot interoperate or are costly to administer when used together. Our implementation of Mac OS X has focused on open industry standards and formats. When possible, we provide direct compatibility with Windows-based PCs and servers. As a result, a Macintosh fits in quite easily with Windows and UNIX networks. We firmly believe that any perceived short term administrative efficiencies and/or cost savings identified by standardizing on one platform is more than offset by the security risk and productivity losses associated with having a thoroughly homogeneous environment that is vulnerable to attack.
Comments
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/tevanian.html
As chief software technology officer, Avie Tevanian focuses on setting company-wide software technology directions for Apple. Tevanian joined Apple in February of 1997 as senior vice president of Software Engineering and is a recognized pioneer in creating cross-platform development environments used worldwide. Tevanian was appointed to his current role in 2003.
Before joining Apple, Tevanian was vice president of Engineering at NeXT and was responsible for managing NeXT?s industry renowned engineering department. Tevanian started his professional career at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a principal designer and engineer of the Mach operating system upon which NEXTSTEP is based.
Tevanian joined NeXT as an engineer on the NEXTSTEP team in January 1988. He quickly moved up the ranks and managed the operating system, responsible for NEXTSTEP development and technology advances. Tevanian then managed a team responsible for porting NEXTSTEP to RISC-based systems and development of Portable Distributed Objects, the NeXT technology that made it possible to develop software on multiple operating systems. He was vice president of NeXT engineering from March 1995, reporting directly to Steve Jobs.
Tevanian holds a Ph.D. and a Masters of Science degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from the University of Rochester.
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/tevanian.html
What I find interesting about this article is that he is testifing at a government hearing.
There have been rumors floating around for a while that the U.S. Government may be looking at making significant purchases from Apple as well as rumors that the OS has US Government icons already imbeded in the OS ready for US Gov. login screens for various dept.
The threat that Avie talks about is a real concern to homeland security as well as big buisness.
Hopefullly the gov. does start making some major purchases.
Originally posted by Splinemodel
The name sounds very armenian, but who knows.
http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/tevanian.html
cuz he is armenian
Originally posted by Placebo
Tevanian is the cool Indian dude from Virginia Tech, right?
for shame! and you call yourself a mac user, on a mac forum....