The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project seems to be stalling due to various security issues attached to it. The aim of the project is to provide children in under developed countries an opportunity for education. However, this ideal has many realists asking about the security issues involved, if there is a guarantee that malware attacks won’t be handed down when children use the laptop.
Some critics are of the opinion that, there is a possibility of the laptops being stolen from the children and used by fraudsters for malicious purposes.
Ivan Krstic, director of security architecture for OLPC said that the security features that are embedded have encryption that allows the laptops to be shut down remotely if stolen. To eliminate many of the virus attacks that plague common desktops, the Linux-based operating system of the XO-1 cannot be altered. However, Krstic also said that the most important security feature built into the devices is also one of its most controversial.
"Security vendors would say don't let the kids run anything you haven't signed, but that says nothing about the corrupting of approved applications or attacking the rest of the system; and since we want kids to have complete control of the computers, that's not an option," Krstic said.
"Instead of protecting from executing untrusted code, we protect while running unwanted code, and keep it from doing bad things to the system," Krstic said. "By running each application in its own virtual machine, and only giving each program the permissions that it needs, you suddenly get rid of a lot of common problems with viruses and spyware."
Sean Coyne, a security consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, said, "This learning machine was made to be malleable in the file system, to be able to swap parts, and for the kids to see the code, and that's all fantastic for the kids, but those are also its greatest weaknesses," Coyne said. "Through changing it, people can nullify all the security concerns that have been taken, and throw away the good work that's been done."
"Net culture is dominated by Western society, and now this is being piped into these developing nations and its unsure who is ready for it. Are these cultures ready for YouTube?" Coyne proposed. "We know that laptops can be exploited, and that kids can be exploited; kids with laptops can definitely be taken advantage of."
"Security is a combination of the ludicrous and the dangerous. You have to prepare all the time for things you can't see, and be able to respond to things you didn't plan for," said Jason Scott, founder of the Textfiles.com bulletin board archiving site. "The OLPC has made a bunch of speculations about the security of its laptop. People see it as a beautiful sweet little candy-colored neon machine and want to sprinkle it all over the muffin of Africa. There are a lot of things that could go wrong."
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