Microsoft Sued for Weak Security

Wired Magazine: "A class action lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims that Microsoft's security warnings are too complex to be understood by the general public and serve instead to tip off 'fast-moving' hackers on how to exploit flaws in its operating system."

I can't speak to the merits of this lawsuit, but it doesn't take major insight to see that Microsoft has a PR problem when it comes to their handling of security. In other words, there will be lot of people hoping for this lawsuit to succeed.

Comments

[J. Craig Williams]

Check this URL for another perspective. As a fellow Newport Beach attorney and blogger, I don't think that this lawsuit is likely to be successful, although as you point out, it would be nice.Craig

[Bruce Hayden]

About time. I haven't seen the complaint yet, and thuscan make no statements about the merits of the suit.However, I do think that I could have plead, and maybeeven tried, a case against MS sucessfully.

Part of the problem I would suggest is that MS (IMHO)negligently writes and debugs its software. It hasapparently been more concerned with release dates andrevenue targets than bug levels and the like.

I have some experience with software validation, wheresoftware is not released until bug levels have moved downthe curve far enough to guarantee reliability. Probablynot surprisingly, there is a science to this, and I wouldbe extremely surprised if MS was able to adequatelydocument conformity with standard methodologies here.

As a note for attorneys, Yes, I know there are otherproblems with a lawsuit against MS about softwarereliability, such as their warranty disclaimers, but wouldsuggest that one could overcome such for example withtheories of adhesion contract, battle of the forms, etc.