13 October 2006
Very Secure Laptops from OLPC
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is not cutting corners on security while still offering laptops to children in developing countries throughout the world. Recently they have invited some of the world's best hackers to help secure the laptop platform before they launch it.
The project is planning on delivering about 100 million laptops in the first year at about $100 each. They want these laptops to be very secure and have already had members of the GNOME community spend two days looking at the laptops and hacking the embedded version of the GNOME desktop. Now they want the best hackers to look at the documentation and play with the machine trying to break into it to help ensure a higher level of security.
The group has said that they cannot afford to get any part of the system wrong. This is because many of the people who are receiving these laptops will have very limited network connectivity at home and school and therefore need to have a secure laptop out of the box.
If this project continues as it is going, it may very will be the first project that actually offers quality low cost products to developing countries. This will provide the children receiving the laptops with computer skills that can enable them to later get jobs in more developed countries in the IT industry as well as giving them the ability to gain an equivalent education to those in more developed nations by having access, even if limited, to other resources on the Internet.
The project is planning on delivering about 100 million laptops in the first year at about $100 each. They want these laptops to be very secure and have already had members of the GNOME community spend two days looking at the laptops and hacking the embedded version of the GNOME desktop. Now they want the best hackers to look at the documentation and play with the machine trying to break into it to help ensure a higher level of security.
The group has said that they cannot afford to get any part of the system wrong. This is because many of the people who are receiving these laptops will have very limited network connectivity at home and school and therefore need to have a secure laptop out of the box.
If this project continues as it is going, it may very will be the first project that actually offers quality low cost products to developing countries. This will provide the children receiving the laptops with computer skills that can enable them to later get jobs in more developed countries in the IT industry as well as giving them the ability to gain an equivalent education to those in more developed nations by having access, even if limited, to other resources on the Internet.
