Speaking in with TechRader, Intel Principe Engineer Francois Piednoel talked about how they've tried to make it more difficult for hackers.
"As an ex-hacker – I don't do it any more, I live in a country where you can't do this – there's one thing I knew, which is under Windows the game of the hacker was to guess where the next mem-alloc (memory allocation) was going to be, put your code there and wait for someone to call on you,” says Piednoel. “Most of the hackers, this is what they do.”
“In Windows 8 they've changed this mechanism, now memory allocation is random. Now if I guess, then I guess wrong 100% of the time. Now to hack, it is much harder."
Despite all of what Gabe Newell and Blizzard have been saying about Windows 8, it does seem like there might be some reasons worth upgrading to the new operating system. If you've ever played a multiplayer online game with someone who's obviously hacked the game, this might help alleviate some of that problem. Microsoft isn't defending itself or talking much about the details of Windows 8 at present, but they insist that the new operating system is worth getting.
“Microsoft, this time,” Piednoel explains, “is trying to do a consumer-friendly launch. They're not going to come at you with a lot technical details – while they have improved a lot – because that's not the topic of the launch. Don't think it's just a cosmetic change.”
Who knows? Maybe Windows 8 is worth a look after all.
