JEAN SEBASTIAN-TORRES

Operating Systems
Master of Science in Information Technology
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Cagayan State University - Aparri

Question:
With the COVID-19 pandemic, it has a great impact on the global market. In your
own opinion, give the significant role of different operating systems to the future of tech
companies today. What will be the future of Operating systems? Compare and contrast
each OS.
Answer:
The world is now facing a grievous threat that no one have ever expected, the
infectious disease named “Corona Virus Disease 2019” also known as COVID19. In
different parts of the world, cases of infected with the virus continue to rise.
To possibly slow down the spreading of the pandemic or to flatten the curve,
country leaders have decided to enforce community quarantine and lockdowns to avoid
further transmission of the virus. Due to this health emergency period, global market is
affected. Since the lockdowns and community quarantine have been implemented, most
of the commercial industries, establishments, businesses and essential service providers
and others have discontinued operation, production of supplies have been delayed or
stopped, which resulted a great impact on the global market and economy.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) presumed that world trade will fall by
between 13% and 32% in 2020 as the COVID 19 pandemic disrupts normal economic
activity and life around the world, this turndown is actually being experience already by
certain countries.
I could see that technology companies during this period will be progressive. Why?
Social distancing is in effect to avoid close contact from other individuals, work from home
or online job is highly recommended. Hence, digital technology is aiding skeletal force of
different industries to maintain operation amidst of the pandemic. But since everything is
being perform online, all of the data and information are stored on servers, the databases
are prone from hacking. So different technology companies should have better security
management. In line with this, different operating systems play a vital role to the future of
the technology companies in terms of managing the security of the servers.
In terms of secure operating system, most enterprises these days tend to have a
combination of OSs to provide and facilitate organizational needs. This leads to the
inevitable comparison of operating systems in terms of security.
I think, the Linux OS is the best – you can modify the security features and
efficiently manage security. It’s free and open source, it has a wide community to ask for
assistance not like closed source OSes with uncontrollable security features such as
Windows or even macOS. This was supported by D. Taylor (2018), he stated that clear
consensus among experts shown that Linux is the most secure operating system. Based
from Taylor’s citation, it was then elaborated that Linux is the most secure OS, as its
source is open. Anyone can review it and make sure there are no bugs or back doors,
additionally, Linux and Unix-based operating systems have less exploitable security flaws
known to the information security world. Linux code is reviewed by the tech community,
which lends itself to security: By having that much oversight, there are fewer
vulnerabilities, bugs and threats.
 JEAN SEBASTIAN-TORRES
Operating Systems
Master of Science in Information Technology
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Cagayan State University - Aparri

Another factor cited by Taylor is that Linux has better user privileges model:
Windows users are generally given administrator access by default, they have access to
everything on the system, meanwhile, Linux greatly restricts “root.”
We all know that the most popular operating system is Windows, since it dominates
the global OS market share. Its popularity itself became its problem, the security of an
operating system depend to a large degree on the size of its installed base. As cited by
Taylor, Windows always comes in last in the security world for a number of reasons, mainly
because of the adoption rate of consumers. With a large number of Windows-based
personal computers on the market, hackers historically have targeted these systems the
most.
But being less popular and keeping the inner workings of software proprietary
could avoid hacker attack? This was the concept of the “security through obscurity” of
MacOS. Taylor also cited that macOS is more secure than Windows, used to be
considered a fully secure operating system with little chance of security flaws, but in recent
years, hackers tried crafting additional exploits against the macOS which actually means
that hackers are not ignoring macOS.
On the other hand, SentinelOne said that security isn’t a feature of operating
systems, a business don’t only need just an operating system to manage security but need
to integrate security software solutions and employees who follow best security practices.
The OS deployed to the users does make difference for security management but it cannot
assure total security. This agree to Taylor, he also mentioned that breech nowadays is
more likely to come about because an attacker probed your users, not your systems, this
statement is supported by the survey of hackers who attended DEFCON conference
revealed that 84 percent use social engineering as part of their attack strategy.
I therefore conclude that, even if the Linux is the best you don’t need to disregard
other operating system especially Windows and macOS. No matter what operating system
you utilize, the security of the system is still affected or it depends on every decision of the
users.
Contrarily, yes, Linux is most secure since it is highly configurable. It was then
recommended that tech companies during this COVID19 pandemic should not only focus
on what operating system to utilize in order to manage the security of the servers for
different enterprises but should give more attention to how to orient and train system users
to interact with the operating system. Security and usability go hand-in-hand.

References:

 World Trade Organization (WTO), Trade set to plunge as COVID-19 pandemic upends
global economy - https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres20_e/pr855_e.htm
 SentinelOne 2019, Which is more Secure: Windows, Linux or macOS?, SentinelOne
Blog - https://www.sentinelone.com/blog/which-is-more-secure-windows-linux-or-macos/
 Dave Taylor, 2018, Why Linux is better than Windows or macOS for security,
ComputerWorld - https://www.computerworld.com/article/3252823/why-linux-is-better-
than-windows-or-macos-for-security.html
 JEAN SEBASTIAN-TORRES
Operating Systems
Master of Science in Information Technology
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Cagayan State University - Aparri