Nato warns of strike against cyber attackers

[henry at AegisInfoSys.com (Henry Yen)]

On Wed, Jun 09, 2010 at 16:44:38PM -0400, Barry Shein wrote:
> MAYBE IF [please read thru before replying because I probably cover
> most knee-jerk responses eventually]:
> 
> d) Microsoft hadn't ignored all these basic security practices in
> operating systems which were completely well understood and
> implemented in OS after OS back to at least 1970 if not before because
> they saw more profit in, to use a metaphor, selling cars without
> safety glass in the windshields etc, consequences be damned.

That's a thesis argued in Clarke's book (already mentioned here on NANOG,
and slashdot and ...):

     "Microsoft  has  vast  resources,  literally billions of dollars in
     cash,  or  liquid  assets  reserves.  Microsoft  is  an  incredibly
     successful  empire  built  on  the premise of market dominance with
     low-quality goods."

   Who  wrote  those  lines?  Steve  Jobs? Linux inventor Linus Torvalds?
   Ralph  Nader?  No, the author is former White House adviser Richard A.
   Clarke  in  his  new  book,  Cyber  War:  The  Next Threat to National
   Security and What to Do About It.

   Clarke  tries  to  be  fair. He notes that Microsoft didn't originally
   intend  its  software  for  critical networks. But even his efforts at
   fairness  are  unflattering. Microsoft's original goal "was to get the
   product  out  the  door and at a low cost of production," he explains.

<http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/06/cyber-war-microsof
          t-a-weak-link-in-national-security.ars>

-- 
Henry Yen                                       Aegis Information Systems, Inc.
Senior Systems Programmer                       Hicksville, New York