Wednesday, October 17, 2001

M$: It's YOUR Fault -- 7:45 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Microsoft, in lieu of actually doing something about it, is blaming security consultants for "information anarchy". Basically they are saying that the people who report the security holes in M$ software are to blame for worm and virus outbreaks, not M$ themselves for failing to do anything about it. You can read the whole essay on Microsoft's site. Thanks Slashdot.

Editorializing mode on The arrogance of this article astounds me. It's not the fault of code, it's not our fault for making it easier for sysadmins to keep up-to-date. If you find a security hole, keep your mouth shut to everyone and tell us so we can get busy at doing nothing about it. We will cripple admins' ability to keep their sites secure, that's their problem. Blech.

It is clear that Microsoft will not act until they are publicly humiliated. Releasing exploits seems to be the only way to drill through their lead-lined craniums so they finally understand the situation.

The Master comments: The only way to make Microsoft do ANYTHING is to damage their pocketbook. Once someone sues and wins a couple billion out of M$ for an exploit, then M$ will truly invest in securing their O/S. Otherwise, forget it. They'd rather stay busy integrating EVERY SINGLE APP IN EXISTENCE into the Windows environment and destroy any and all of their competition. This is BillG of Microsoft. Prepare to be assimilated.

J.t.Qbe comments: It'd be nice to sue M$ for a few billion, but oops, their licenses exempt Microsoft from responsibility for any problem, ever. Do not pass go, do not collect anything. This is just an official statement of Microsoft's official policy of security through obscurity. Ignore a problem and it'll go away. This the the company which wants you to store your personal information on its servers in the coming .NET world.

News for 10/17/2001

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