Both the community and the vendor need to be held responsible for the current state of things. Microsoft preaches "Trustworthy Computing" and talks about how "secure" their OS is. A normal user has absolutely no comprehension of the dangers of an unpatched machine. Even though I have all those letters behind my name (joke, yes I have a cissp and it was the biggest bs test I have ever taken :) Microsoft will prevail in the users mind.

Why doesnt MS or the vendors such as Dell set the machine up so that it is completely locked down and unusable until Windows Update is contacted? How about insisting that a firewall be sold with each new computer? Not just an external but a true stateful firewall built into the OS? The answer is somewhat easy technically but PR-wise for MS it is a nightmayer as it requires them to admit that their OS is insecure and "secure trustworthy computing" is nothing but lip service...




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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/216/24659#24659