The computer on which Sd and Sdtty and their documentation
are developed has no Internet or modem connections at all.
No mail is sent or received, and no web browsing is done, on this computer.
Only software from trustworthy sources is installed. Each version of
the program is digitally signed, using a 512-bit secret PGP/RSA key,
and then transferred to another computer by Zip disk. The files
are then mailed to the web server. Before placing it on the web, the
server authenticates the signature and verifies, with the PGP signature
algorithm, that the files were not tampered with in transit.
Prior to May, 2000, the computer from which the web updates take place had Microsoft Outlook installed, but not used. (Netscape Communicator is used as my mailer, because of its technical and ethical superiority. Outlook had been installed only because of the policy of my employer.)
The "Love Bug" virus of May, 2000 demonstrated that Microsoft
is unable or unwilling to make its email software adhere to the most basic
common-sense principles of safety. Accordingly, Outlook and the Visual Basic
scripting / virus-propagating mechanism (wscript.exe) have been removed
from that computer. No Microsoft email or virus-propagating products
exist anywhere on the Sd development path.
Various terms in the preceding paragraphs are trademarks of various corporations.
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