Security News > 2003 > November > My Own PR Assault against Microsoft

Forwarded from: security curmudgeon http://www.attrition.org/security/rant/microsoft_pr_assault.html My Own PR Assault against Microsoft Thu Nov 13 04:04:21 EST 2003 Brian Martin Infoworld broke a story on Microsoft's plans for waging a public relations war against "linux" over taking too long to fix security vulnerabilities. The article by Kieren McCarthy outlines Microsoft's planned smear campaign against its biggest rival, Linux, currently dubbed "Days of Risk". With the decision to smear Linux in the media, Microsoft has once again validated the open source operating system as competition, despite repeated attempts in the past to boldly claim "Linux is not competition". In the last few years, Microsoft has begun to lose high dollar customers such as the Norwegian government and the city of Munich, who are turning to alternate solutions such as Linux. McCarthy's article along with Microsoft's recent behavior once again prove that while they claim security is important, they are oblivious to the steps required to achieve security. Misguided policy, diversionary tactics and wasted money are leading the company down a perilous road that the software giant is all too familiar with, a road leading to insecure software and lack of customer trust. While touting "trustworthy computing initiative", Microsoft's actions tell us of their real agenda, and it has nothing to do with their customers enjoying a secure operating system. Reading the Infoworld article, many points and comments stand out and deserve more attention. [...] - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.

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