worms worms worms

[burns]

On Sat, 2003-08-16 at 14:07, Bill Campbell wrote:

> The people who deploy Windows systems on the Internet should be held
> accountable for endangering their organization's data and systems (not to
> mention lost productivity while waiting for Windows systems to reboot
> unnecessarily).  It's not like these worms are any surprise.  I know I've
> been warning people of the dangers of using Windows on public networks for
> at least ten years now.

What you say is true - and if it can be proven that Microsoft has
callously endangered their customers' systems - and those customers were
not aware of MS's general security limitations beforehand (there is the
rub), then they should be sued. 

But why does that give virus-spawners free rein? Why are we also making
excuses for those who knowingly and intentionally cause damage to
systems? To offer another analogy: I may be stupid for going to a bad
part of town late at night, but that also doesn't change the fact that a
person that sticks a knife in that me is still guilty of assault or
murder. One person's negligence is not an open excuse for others to
damage that person's systems and/or property. 

-- 
burns