Security School of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London

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Quotation from The World Wide Web Security FAQ

"Question: Are some operating systems more secure to use as platforms for Web servers than others? The answer is yes, although the Unix and NT communities may not like to hear it."

Since the course organiser has many years experience in running VMS system on DEC Alpha Workstations, the decision was taken to use this highly secure system for the Powder Diffraction Web Course. In general, hackers tend to be less unfamiliar with this operating system (OS) than with Unix or NT, which are the standard OS for home computers.

The Industrial Materials Group (IMG) has two such computers, one of which has been running the OSU HTTP Server to serve the Web pages for the group since 1996. This means that in the event of severe computer failure, the second machine could be configured to serve the Web material with minimal disruption to the students on the course. The disk containing the course material has a partial backed up each night (at 03:00 GMT), with a full backup being made every 4 to 8 weeks.

The system has the advantage that management time is minimal due to (a) stability of the system, and (b) that the operating system is in native English and not computer-speak (cf. Unix!).

In terms of future planning, it may be necessary to use a Unix- or NT-based Web server if Compaq discontinues support for VMS. A strategic decision was therefore taken: all hypertext links in the main course material should conform to ISO9660 standards, but with filenames in lowercase given possible conversion of the course material for use with Unix (in the form of Linux) OS at some future date.

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