Microsoft security flaws: what's the incentive to fix them?

Whether by hook or crook, it's a given that Microsoft is the dominant computer operating system. And as the recent virus epidemics (e.g. WormBlaster and SoBig-F) illustrate, Microsoft's OS is easy prey. The question is: what is Microsoft going to do about it? The answer may be: as little as it can, unless consumers become more insistent that computer security is important.

A leading security expert named Bruce Schneier doubts that Microsoft is sufficiently motivated to address the flaws in its operating system:

"If Microsoft makes a stupid mistake in its code that makes it easy for someone to come into your home and steal everything you have, Microsoft is not legally responsible for any of your losses. And until that changes, none of the security will get better," Schneier says.

Read More from Salon article (viewing of annoyance ad may be req'd). Also, Jerry Lawson has some intelligent observations over at his NetLaw weblog.

Comments

[CR]

Microsoft has no incentive to fix the holes because people are stupid. That's the long and short of it. PT Barnum's famous quote, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" is a fair substitute for "Where do you want to go today?" Assume that your customer is a moron, and you will be rewarded with untold riches.

[CR]

Sorry, one more thing: you would think that retailers, knowing that Windows poses a security threat, might stop selling it until the problems are fixed. Microsoft has a Pinto on its hands, yet they're putting more and more of them on the road every day. And retailers and computer manufactures continue to sell it, knowing that buyers are very likely to suffer some sort of downtime or data loss due to a virus or Windows exploit. Why would retailers send you off the lot in a Pinto? See my previous comment.

[Ken]

Wait. If Microsoft is, in part, to blame for the lack of security on the Internet, why aren't they punished in the marketplace? I mean, normally, if a company makes a defective product, people dis 'em and buy their competitor's offerings...

Oh, monopoly, right, right, I forgot. Silly me!