The only approach to security that works is a disciplined, methodical, unsentimental approach: (1) disciplined - there must be standardized procedures and methodologies. Any exception must be known, justified, documented and automatically removed once the justification is gone; (2) methodical - every product must be configured with security in mind. MS can help mightily by making available white papers that clearly explain how to configure its products for security. QAing its own patches befotre publishing them would be a mighty fine idea, too. MS can also help by making security vulnerability in a timely way, as in within a matter of days not of weeks - I understand that it's not always possible to come up with a quick patch, but a quick workaround or a change in network configuration pending a patch might be possible; (3) unsentimental - if it does not have to be connected to the Internet, then it shouldn't be. And put almost everything behind a properly configured, NATted firewall.

I do not agree that the Internet is unreliable - If the Internet is unreliable, then it shouldn't be. The Internet was originally designed to have enough flexibility and self-healing ability to survive nuclear attacks that would take out large parts of it. Most Internet worms have been successful because software maintenance discipline was not kept or enforced, and probably because enough laxness existed at the ISP level to create situations where Service Level Agreements were violated.

I would love products that were secure right out of the box. However, if they were configured to be secure right out of the box, then they would also be configured to be non-operational right out of the box. And the less intuitive and the more complex the design of the product, the greater the difficulty and frustration in reconfiguring said product for functionality. MS is not alone in designing products that are anything but intuitive and/or simple and straightforward.

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