Scott Culp’s “10 Immutable Laws of Security” from Microsoft c.2000, but still highly relevant today.
- Law #1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it’s not your computer anymore.
- Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it’s not your computer anymore.
- Law #3: If a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it’s not your computer anymore.
- Law #4: If you allow a bad guy to upload programs to your website, it’s not your website any more.
- Law #5: Weak passwords trump strong security.
- Law #6: A computer is only as secure as the administrator is trustworthy.
- Law #7: Encrypted data is only as secure as the decryption key.
- Law #8: An out of date virus scanner is only marginally better than no virus scanner at all.
- Law #9: Absolute anonymity isn’t practical, in real life or on the Web.
- Law #10: Technology is not a panacea.
Further reading: Revisiting the 10 Immutable Laws of Security
