A.P. Lawrence

Microsoft enters the "Protection" racket

(Traditional format)

Sat Dec 18 11:57:33 2004 Microsoft enters the "Protection" racket
Posted by Tony Lawrence
Search Keys: security|microsoft
Referencing: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/12/16/microsoft.spyware.ap/index.html

Why is Microsoft software so insecure? As I do, you probably thought it was a combination of popularity (big target) and sloppy programming. Maybe..

But here we have Microsoft offering up a free taste of software to help fix some of those nasty problems - after the fact. Microsoft has bought some spyware removal software, and says that although they will be handing it out free for the moment, they may charge for it later.

Well, yeah, why not? After all, it's not like it is your fault that the spyware gets on to people's computers. Oh, wait, it IS your fault. Hmmm. So Microsoft makes an insecure product, and rather than fixing it, wants to charge you for tools to help you survive their screwups?

Neat idea! Even better than it looks, because now they can make the product even MORE dangerous, and sell you MORE tools to protect yourself! Suddenly it all becomes clear: this was the plan all along! These guys are brilliant.

This isn't quite like a virus scanning company hiring people to write viri, but it's not that far away from it, either. Microsoft is responsible for its security problems, and it is outrageous that they would even think about charging for anything related to those issues.