“Microsoft controls about 95 percent of the world’s PC market. It became the behemoth it is through some heavy-handed tactics, using muscle in some areas to drive out competition in others. And alternatives to Microsoft’s Windows are fairly limited,” writes Allen Wastler for CNN/Money. “Sure, Linux and Apple are out there and have devoted followings. But a lot of schmos like me want to be a lemming and go with the herd, OK?”
“Given all this, it seems fair that the company that overpowered the market and made its product the de facto platform for the world should take the hit for any security problems, right? Wrong,” Wastler writes. “You may not like Microsoft. And you may not like the way it does business. But that doesn’t mean you have a right to vandalize its products or its service. Or hurt the people who use those products.”
Full article here.
Yeah, so let’s just base our security around the honor system, and not hold companies accountable when they have a hole that causes billions in damages.
Dumb idea, dumb article.
Psyco
I always love these articles. I wonder how much MS paid them to write this article. They issue neatly 100 security patches a year and wonder why people start ignoring them.
This is one of reasons I avoide MS products. They need to take security seriously and not just do a risk analysis. They probably decided it is cheaper to issue patches and ignore the fundamental design flaws that keep these things popping up.
Heaven forbid to actually blame the company that produces a faulty product!!!!
— this way of thinking only works if your company is MicroSoft, and I don’t understand…
Too bad. I bet if we made a lock that worked “most” of the time we would go out of business.
Imagine if we made a locked that was impervious to picking to all except the 100th person to try and pick it.
LOL. The worled is upsied down.
How much did they pay him??? You can’t buy stupidity like that! These days morons appear to be grown from trees they are so far spread. Microsoft should be held accountable, it’s as simple as that.
Just what we need…Another MS/Windows apologist!
Sheesh!
What a load of crap!
Of course you can blame MS if Apple and Linux don’t suffer the same problems, and get their products out quicker. It’s not a time-quality trade-off when you can get better quality faster from other vendors.
So let him be a schmo…
And a lemming…
And follow the herd…
Right off the dadgum cliff. ALL THE WAY DOWN. There’s just no telling how far they’ll be willing to fall. But it always hurts… eventually. And there’s a lot of hurting going on right now, huh? Wonder how much hurt it will take?
Wastler is just asking, begging, more people to vandalize and to take advantage of who knows how many more flaws M$ has allowed to fester. It’s only a matter of time ’til the next one is exposed and exploited. And, YES, M$ is REALLY TO BLAME. How can one NOT say M$ is NOT to blame for releasing an “End User” product that CAN be exploited and used so maliciously and with ill will in the manner in which we’ve seen it?
Is microsoft really to blame for the viruses and worms?
Yes.
This is not about Microsoft bashing but about product safety. Microsoft has the same responsibility as any other manufacturer toward ensuring its customers and product users are not harmed by using its products.
You guys just don’t get it. Our computer infrastructure is being attacked, not just Microsoft. Our OS X webserver suffered because the net was not only full of Blaster packets, but because Unix DNS server and Cisco hardware was being attacked.
Sure, I urge people to switch to OS X, but I do not cheer when the bastards hack windoze.
I don’t think economic terrorists will agree to play by the Marquis de Lafayette rules advocated by this myopic Polyanna. So far we have been collectively very lucky. When someone cracks Windows and only causes clogged inboxes we should breathe a sigh of relief. And then tar and feather Microsoft.
“Is Microsoft really to blame for the worms and viruses?”
Yes.
Sorry matrat, i didn’t read your post before I duplicated it
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Perhaps he is correct!
It may be much easier to change the very nature of mankind, convincing all criminals and thrill-seekers to permanently mend their evil ways, than it is to fix Window’s security holes.
It’s not Microsoft’s fault there are criminals in the world. Windows is the perfect operating system, it’s just the users that are flawed.
Let’s compare a little bit.
I’m going to give you $10,000. However, I’m also going to require that you carry this money so that it’s visible – perhaps hanging out of your pockets – and carry a sign that says “I’m carrying $10,000” around with you.
And, by the way, I’m going to make you walk down the street in some of the, shall we say, more exciting neighborhoods of Washington, DC.
Now, should you survive this experience, I’d be willing to make a $1 bet that little if any of the cash will remain in your possession.
Was this your fault? Technically, no – but you behaved like what police refer to as an “attractive nuisance” – that is, a situation which invites criminals to take advantage of.
Microsoft, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, has been an “attractive nuisance” for virus writers and other hackers since Windows first was inflicted upon the world.
Technically, Microsoft is not at fault. But why would anyone do business with a company that walks around the slums of the Internet just begging to have their users mugged?
This will become even less amusing when Microsoft is competing with Symantec for antivirus software…
Can you say “conflict of interest”?
So…. it’s Microsoft’s fault AND it’s the fault of the attackers. Isn’t that a little too obvious to bother writing an article on?
This is way too much. LOL. These people is ridiculizing themselves, computig security and Windows users.
Or are they slowly realizing that Windows cannot avoid these attacks, ie, cannot truly fill those security holes without crumbling?!
Looks like they truly do not get it: first is Macs with “security-via-obscurity”, now we have MS Windows with “security-by-supplication”.
Must sux big time to be so frigging stupid.
Wastler the waster makes an appropriate comparison with commuters trains: “I don’t like my commuter train service. Alternatives exist but are limited. They could make the rail service better, but they don’t. Does that allow me or anyone else to exploit holes in the transportation system, which are many, and screw with the commute? Of course not.”
BECAUSE YOU CAN’T DUMBASS!!!!!
As he ever hear of the word sabotage? NOW, to disrupt a commuter train service you need to breach a certain level of security and monitoring: you need an organized terrorist group to sabotage the service. THIS is point.
If to sabotage or derail a train one would just need a quarter or a dime on the track you BET you would have quarter-kiddies laying down the coin *just because*. Some people do exist. (As well as member of certain organizations who could and would cover the country track systems with quarters)
If – say – Amtrack was so fragile that a dime on the track would cause a major disaster THEN Amtrack would be AT FAULT even more than the dime-kiddie. Now would you go after the kiddies and check whether they have coins in their pockets or fine Amtrack $Billions in damages to victims and force them TO FIX THE CRAPPY SYSTEM????
He likes to be a lemming and go with the herd. I start believeing it must be true: those must be required traits to choose to use Windows.
Free speach is wasted on this person.
Is Microsoft to blame for viruses and worms?
No!
Is Microsoft to blame for the damage caused by viruses and worms?
Yes!
I’m not using any MS software at this time but most people cannot afford such luxury.
Is m$ to blame for the damage caused by viruses and worms?
Yes!
Will they be held accountable
No!
“Is Microsoft really to blame for the worms and viruses?”
Yes.
When you boil it all down, yes.
Microsoft as a multinational corporate empire repeatedly, and not too subtly displays the absolute worst behaviour and excesses of capitalism. This is a company which tries to get away with as much as it can in order to pull in as ever more and more dosh, with cavalier disregard for most of the tenants, that I can think of, for a civil society. They think and behave like they are above the law.
Uh-uh, no thanks. That’s no company I would trust with my money or any power.
If this keeps on going, it may be the end of email as we know it. With the sobig.F virus, you can still filter the junk that is being sent to you by choosing the document subject.
What happens if somebody creates a worm that besides picking the recipient’s name from the address book, ALSO picks the email title. We would have to go through ALL the mail to see which ones are authentic and which ones are not.
Yes, Microsoft is to blame. In its effort to be a monopoly, it has reached a utility status. If people receive this kind of service from their electricity company, they sue. MS has $46 billion in cash. They should use some of it to fix the holes that eager hackers are using.