Mr. Damir ‘Gaus’ RAJNOVIC (Panasonic)
The monoculture concept in the context of computer security is introduced in the article “CyberInsecurity: The Cost on Monopoly,” by Dan Geer, et al. In it the authors argue that if an organization depends solely on a single vendor, any security problem affecting that product will affect the entire organization. The corollary is that diversification will improve the security of an organization. A simplistic interpretation of the monoculture argument is to buy products, which will perform the same function, from different vendors.
This talk will examine whether the solution to the monoculture argument is universally valid. Assumption underpinning the monoculture argument is examined and the fallacies found in these assumptions are presented. It will be show that commercially developed products, presumably independently developed, have common points of failure.
