[talk] Suggest meeting topic: role of BSD in response to ransomware

[Pete Wright]

On 07/11/2017 06:31, James E Keenan wrote:
> Here's a topic I wouldn't mind seeing discussed at a future NYCBUG 
> meeting:
>
> Is there a role for the BSDs in response to massive ransomware attacks?
>
> In the last few months ransomware attacks such as WannaCry 
> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WannaCry_ransomware_attack) have had a 
> devastating effect on large organizations.  Organizations affected 
> include one of the largest law firms in the country and one of the 
> world's largest advertising agency networks.  Such organizations are, 
> typically, "Windows shops."
>
> Suppose that you are a sysadmin or other, non-executive-level techie 
> in such an organization.  You've heard about FreeBSD and OpenBSD and 
> you wonder, "Would using these OSes have helped us either resist a 
> ransomware attack?  Could they help us recover better from such an 
> attack?"
>
> I ask because I know such people.  Their organizations have decades of 
> investment in Windows, so, under normal circumstances, it's difficult 
> for them to argue the case for other OSes.  But these are not normal 
> circumstances.  Is there an "elevator pitch" we could provide them for 
> exploring BSD?
>
I think this would be a great topic for discussion.  I have found that 
most Windows IT teams I've worked with are as overworked as myself and 
really appreciate something that could make their lives easier (if 
presented to them correctly).  For example I turned the team at my old 
shop onto FreeNAS, and walked them through setting it up etc, and they 
were stoked.  It saved them budget and "just worked" and I got to build 
a collaborative relationship with them.

I guess the hard part is how do you convince an IT team to make sure 
netbios isn't reachable on the public internet, and proper network 
security hygiene is being followed?

Now if it was a linux shop we were talking about this would be a much 
easier elevator pitch:
"Hey, you guys trust systemd?  Have you ever tried debugging a hardware 
or OS fault on a systemd box?  Why don't you check out this nice BSD 
world, we have docs *and* no systemd." :^)

-pete

-- 
Pete Wright
pete at nomadlogic.org
@nomadlogicLA