The Case of Insecure Software

I used to avoid this discussion since the question of which operating system is most secure is a very slippery subject. Honestly, I am a Windows user since the OS is most common among alternatives, familiar and productive. I admire the complexity and raw power of Linux and all its flavors while although I am piqued by the simplicity of MacOS and iOS, both are expensive and claustrophobic for me. I have however two thoughts to put forward: one, the question of insecurity, and; two, the need to protect consumers.

The Question of Insecurity

It is quite common to hear in the tech world that Windows is an insecure OS. The question of software security, however, is a very complex one. Tech commentators now speak of ecosystems with Apple and Google and how the former has a strangle hold in theirs. Security, I believe, is a paradigm between a balance of control and freedom. Growing up with Windows, I saw how modular design has allowed great freedom in the creation and support of third party software in the Windows ecosystem at the cost of greater vulnerabilities.  Apple fanboys say that Apple OS is secure but that is because the company has tightly controlled its own OS'es that it is not too friendly to third party programmers.

When a discussion breaks between Windows and Apple fans, the topic of viruses is sure to come out. Windows, they say, has more viruses and malware compared to other OS'es. That is true but it misses the whole picture. While malware is made and is a product of several factors, the main driving force for it is it's objective of maximum effect. Malware is always directed against the  most used product. The tirade against Windows is also an acknowledgement that it is the most used operating system.

The rise of Android in the mobile space is a testament to this. Being the mobile OS with the greater market share, it has become what Windows is in the desktop sphere. I would say that if it were Apple products, then most hackers and black hats would direct their attacks against MacOS and iOS and tide would reverse on Apple fanboys.

It would be good to note too that the internet is now the universal attack vector. Any operating system connected to the internet can be hacked, so none of these could actually brag of impregnability. Software vendors have to deal with three major fronts: insecure software design, user abuse, and vulnerable inter-operability.

The question of secure software design then rests in how much effort software engineers harden their code and their ecosystems, how much leeway they provide for users and third parties, and the balance that comes between. Software security is always an arms race between software engineers and malware authors, thus, another side to security is how much updating and patching a software is given. All in all, the question of security isn't easy and simple.

The Need for Consumer Protection

Google has the Project Zero Program that seeks to find vulnerabilities that affect Google software and others. In recent months, Googlers have contributed to hardening Microsoft software, one of their rivals. This intelligence sharing benefits consumers because the more security researchers from different vendors collaborate, the more secure the software we use becomes. This leads me to my second thought: consumer protection has become a collective responsibility between software companies and states.

Besides vulnerability scanning of software from other companies, like peer review within the scientific community, the use of software standards also calls for this collaborative and collective effort at security. A few years ago, a major flaw was discovered in the TCP/IP stack and in the DNS system, a software infrastructure that holds together the internet and the web. It forced rival companies to work together in solving the problem. They saved the day and everyone was happy.

Security nowadays has to be crowdsourced. The internet and all its dimensions: technical, political, moral, etc, is still in a state of flux as humanity is still in the process of making sense out of the greatest invention it has created that transcended boundaries and categories. While we still lack a universal approach to dealing with the internet and it being a work in progress, security is everyone's job, including the user.

Footprints of the Messiah

Third Sunday of Advent - Year A

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11:2-11. 
When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus 
with this question, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"
Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: 
the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me." 
As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, "What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind?
Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. 
Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.
This is the one about whom it is written: 'Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.'
Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Reflection
We live in a world that needs guarantees. Banks won't approve of loans without a collateral. Credit companies won't issue you a credit card without good credit standing. Math teachers won't consider your answer without a solution. A fact is scientifically sound if it is demonstrable, repeatable, and tested. News is truth if it comes from a verifiable source. It is human to ask for a guarantee for truth.

John the Baptism was your ordinary human. He was like Facebook asking for your password as you log-in or Gmail when asking for a two-factor authentication code as you check your email or Android asking for you PIN, or iPhone waiting for your fingerprint. He was curious if Jesus was the real long-awaited Messiah.

If you remember, in Genesis, God promised Adam and Eve that he would send a savior. In Isaiah, he promised to send a Suffering Servant. Among the prophets, a new Moses. Throughout the Old Testament is a string of promises of Salvation and the people of Israel for thousands of years have been waiting for the one. In their tongue, they call him מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach) or the 'anointed one' which is anglicized as Messiah. In Greek it is christos. He would bring with him peace, harmony and joy for Israel and the whole world.

When Jesus appeared on the public scene and gaining a name for himself, John heard about him. John wanted to confirm if Jesus was indeed the one. "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" They have been looking for so long. Many have come forward as the savior but all of them have failed expectations. This Jesus was proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God. He shares the same preaching as John, repent! Is he the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises?

To this Jesus replied: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." These are the footprints that mark that the Messiah has walked the earth. Jesus alludes to the messianic promises of Isaiah 35. For the anointed of the Lord is anointed with the Spirit and with Him comes not only miracles but the sense of joy, peace, and harmony. And he commends John the Baptist as being that voice that prepared for Jesus coming.

Jesus however declares that even the least in the Kingdom is greater than John. Why? Because those in the Kingdom of God has already seen the promises fulfilled in Jesus, something that John longed to see, something that the prophets of old could only dream of. We who have received Jesus' baptism of water and Spirit have received the fullness of God's promises especially when we receive communion in the Holy Mass.

As we await the second coming of the Christ, we are on the mission to make visible the fruits of these promises. As Christians, we are called to build a society of joy, peace, and harmony; of contributing to growth in humanity, of promoting life and justice. Because the Christ of God has been united to us and is now living in us and working in us. Like Jesus we also have received the anointing of the Spirit in which we are empowered to so that we can also go to the John the Baptists in our lives what we have heard and seen in Christ. This should be the Advent preparation we should do as we move towards Christmas.

Jesus Christ continues to walk the earth through us. We are the footprints of the Messiah.

Mary, the Immaculate Kecharitomene

Icon of St Anne, Mary, and Jesus

As we celebrate today the Solemnity of our Blessed Mother, the Immaculate Conception, my thoughts dwell on the richness of our Catholic tradition. The circumstances and details of the family life of Jesus in Nazareth is not recorded in the Gospels. What has been handed down to us came from a long line of tradition that stretches back to earliest Christianity. Mary's mother was named Anne, her father, Joachim. Sts. Joachim and Anne then are the grandparents of Jesus. We celebrate their feast on July 26 which we consider as grandparents' day.

It is important to note that such details were not recorded in the Bible because the early Christian writers were first preoccupied in writing the core of the Gospel message: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Its beginnings saw Christianity struggle to form its distinct identity by anchoring itself in the Paschal mystery of Jesus. Only later did the Church begin to explore the other details of Jesus rich life.

The belief in the Immaculate Conception is rooted in the belief of the purity of Jesus. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews would say that Jesus was like us in all things except sin (Hebrews 4:15). It is important to hold on to this truth because our salvation rests on the fact that the Son of God became man. Being God, the Second Person of the Trinity had to be incarnated as the Perfect Man for him to become a worthy thanksgiving to the Father in behalf of humanity. But to be born as a man, Jesus needs a mother from whom He will receive His humanity.

Mary was chosen beforehand to be the mother of Jesus. And so, in a singular grace granted to her, she was given the grace of being born without sin in order to prepare her for her role as the mother of Jesus. It is only right that the flesh and womb that would carry the Son of God for nine months be preserved from all stain of sin. But this grace is not given to her because she deserved it. Rather, it was given to her in view of Jesus. This grace of being free from sin is not something that is outside the work of Jesus. Rather it is something that we can call as a "preview" of the salvation that is to be won on the cross. It is the same salvation that we have received at Baptism except that Mary had a foretaste of it at her conception while we receive it after the cross through the water and the Spirit.

This is why our Blessed Mother is often called the Tabernacle because she would carry in her womb the Son of God in the same way our tabernacles in churches would hold the reposed consecrated bread. She is also called theotokos, meaning God-bearer for the same reason. To do this singular role, she was designated and prepared beforehand by the Father.

The angel Gabriel would affirm this her state when he would greet her: "Hail Mary, full of Grace! The Lord is with you!" A more faithful translation would be: "Rejoice, O Graced one! The Lord is with you!" The original Greek would highlight the relationship between joy (rejoice) and grace. Not only is Mary given grace by God but she is graced to to the full. We would say to her fullness because this grace is but a manifestation of the presence of God (Lord) in her life. This is so unique to her that St. Luke's Greek gave her a theological name: kecharitomene - a title that fully describes her unique role (Luke 1:28). Our Blessed Mother is the Kecharitomene.

The title Immaculate Conception is but a negative statement of the Kecharitomene. God and sin are mutually exclusive of one another. Sin the separation from God. To the Hebrew mind, it is 'missing the mark' of doing God's Will, the Law, which separates us from the righteousness of God. Not doing God's Will is separating, excluding, isolating ourselves from God (and not God separating Himself form us). Grace is its opposite: it is communion with God where we receive the fullness of God who is Grace Himself through whom we become just and saved. To be fully graced then is to be without sin!

Yet it is not our act that accomplishes this. It is only through God's mercy that these things happen. Mary was the recipient and God was the benefactor. She only completed this preparation given her when she said her fiat: "be it done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). If through her human nature God has dwelt like the fire that dwelt in the bush before Moses, now her 'yes' allowed for God to dwell in her womb. Grace prepared her to be the Mother of God.

The Immaculate Conception is the most proper solemnity to prepare us for the Birth of Jesus which we celebrate every Christmas. When we see the Madonna embracing the little Child, we see in her the representative of all humanity that has been longing to embrace and receive salvation. The little Child that slept soundly on her breast should be able to sleep soundly on our hearts. We might not have been conceived immaculately in the wombs of our mothers but we have been spiritually born immaculately in the womb of the Church when the waters of Baptism have completely washed away our sins. Let us maintain this purity through the practice of the virtue of chastity and allow Grace to dwell in us especially as we await the birth of Christ in our hearts.