Bonum Certa Men Certa

Pulling an SCO Using Security Firms?

The Fortify "Get the Facts" campaign (against Free software) was only mentioned very briefly here. It came in the form of a warning (it was also included in some link digests).



Security companies are funny creatures because they naturally love insecure software. They love breaking software apart and fear means business to them. Lying is never a problem, no matter the consequences. Moreover, Free software, which is inherently more secure, is a true danger to the business model of security agents, so they fight without tact or mercy [1, 2, 3].

Some concerned people, such as Sean at Internet News, truly wondered what Fortify had in mind. Why would it attack Free software so suddenly? Groklaw found this one, which is merely a possibility, not an explantion. It's a vanity page bearing the headline: "FORTIFY-MICROSOFT ALLIANCE."

Microsoft and Fortify Software are enabling software developers and testers to build and deliver more secure applications. Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers offers an easy-to-use yet powerful framework for testing. Fortify leverages this infrastructure and adds Web application security testing capabilities. The combination of the two effectively brings basic security testing out of the realm of specialized experts and into the hands of software testers. In addition, Fortify provides its award-winning source code analysis capabilities to Visual Studio Team Edition for Developers so security flaws discovered in development and testing can be diagnosed and fixed quickly. Working closely with the Visual Studio team has enabled Fortify Software to incorporate its innovative software security capabilities within the powerful Visual Studio


Groklaw adds: "Yes, folks. This partner of Microsoft is the same Fortify Software that put out that "study" that concluded that "Open Source" (but actually only Java) is risky." It smells like a case of fitting data to an hypothesis and a sensationalist conclusion, and at the same time hitting two rivals of Microsoft: Java and Free software.

They didn't assess proprietary equivalents. They wanted to encourage businesses to buy products from them. Furthermore, according to this, once/if you looked closely, you would find that proprietary products were shown to be more -- not less -- defective than Free software. So what has Fortify really proven?

Her main points:

1. There are other security toolkits other than Fortify. Just because you don’t use their system doesn’t mean you don’t care. 2. When reading vendor-sponsored studies consider the source. Always a wise move. 3. Open source projects in Fortify’s Open Review report fewer defects per thousand lines of code than proprietary products in the same review. I didn’t know that.


Fortify may also have some junk software patents, such as this one on "security testing".

Fortify SCA helps security, testing and development teams pinpoint and eliminate security vulnerabilities in software applications. Fortify's patent-pending technology delivers the most accurate and reliable results with low false positives..


“There should really be an index somewhere to tell who's with who.”Watch who Fortify built an alliance with: Wipro, another Microsoft partner that's joint to it by the hip and lobbies for OOXML -- all against India's interests [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].

Fortify lives in a not-so-healthy neighbourhood of proprietary software companies that combat Free software and encourage software patents.

The apple doesn't fall so far from the tree.

With money on the table, there is no trust. Will you also believe OpenLogic and Black Duck, for example, despite being headed by former Microsoft employees? They sell open source fear. There should really be an index somewhere to tell who's with who. It would help tremendously.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

In Norway, Android/Linux Has Just Hit All-Time High (First Time Since 2020), GNU/Linux Already Very Prevalent
Despite its small population size, Norway gave us Qt and many other things
Microsoft's Mass Layoffs Very Wide-Ranging, Media Focused on Gaming Though Microsoft Mass-Firing Lawyers and "AI" Staff (Contradicting Its Supposed "Investment" in "AI")
Microsoft plans to fire almost half a thousand people in legal roles
2012 Article About the Free Software Foundation Blasting Canonical/Ubuntu Over Adoption of "Secure" Boot (Microsoft's Remote Control Over GNU/Linux Since PCs' Power-on)
By Katherine Noyes (article has since then became 404, not found)
Debian Can Dump Blind Users Because I am Not Blind
the sort of mentality we're up against
The European Patent Office Cannot Attract Proficient Patent Examiners Who Master Their Domain
They are enablers and facilitators of corruption
 
Microsoft is at 0% "Market Share" in Most Areas
Depending on the taxonomy chosen, there may be dozens of categories other than desktops and laptops
"The moment MSFT stock fails to start tumbling, that’s the beginning of another corporate giant going under."
There are far more layoffs at Microsoft than at Intel, but you would not get this impression based on Wall Street media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 19, 2025
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: Git For Authors and Filtered Antenna
Links for the day
UEFI 'Secure' Boot Abuses by Microsoft to be Brought Up in the UK High Court in 3 Months
we'll seek compensation
Russia Set to Ban Facebook?
If WhatsApp is made to "leave", that means Facebook or "Meta".
Next Year It'll Be Half a Decade Since the Fall of Freenode (and IRC is Still Doing OK)
Our IRC network is still accessible using the exact same software that ran in Windows 3.x
Lupa Will Soon Know of 3,100+ Active Gemini Capsules
And some people in the "Small Web" try to tell us that Gemini is dying?
The Slopfarms Are Taking Real News Articles and Replacing Them With Lies Generated by Machines
Bluntly speaking, Fagioli is nothing short of an online scammer
Links 19/07/2025: Techtarget to Cull 10% of Staff, New Threats to Free Press in the US (Home of Dangerous and Violent Stranglers From Microsoft)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/07/2025: "Climate Justice” and Forking Programs
Links for the day
What Wayland and Microsoft/IBM systemd Have in Common
focus on what IBM (Red Hat) is pushing while running over critics.
Linux Already Has About 60% of the "Market"
"When mentioning the client side," opines an associate, "it is essential to recite the list of other markets where Microsoft is negligible or a no-show. It is repetitive to do so, but it needs saying -- often."
Finland (and NATO) Must Move to GNU/Linux and Dump Microsoft Even Faster
"Microsoft is not a technology problem, it is a staffing problem."
The Microsofters We Sued Helped Microsoft Make GNU/Linux 'Expire' This Year
"Linux and Secure Boot certificate expiration"
linuxconfig.org Joins linuxtechlab.com and Others, Becomes a Slopfarm With Fake Linux 'Articles' (LLM Slop)
They contain "linux" in their domain names, but they are just slopfarms
Links 19/07/2025: Microsoft Cuts in China and Wall Street Journal Sued for Reporting on Jeffrey Epstein
Links for the day
Fascistic Policies Got 'Normalised' in 'Public Office'. Let's Not Let the Same Happen in 'Tech'.
Political discourse typically guides what's "normal" and what "good citizens" should believe/feel
Yes, Your Mastodon Instance Will Also Shut Down
Few people run a one-person instance in the Fediverse
The Demise of GAFAM Necessitates Greater and Broader Awareness
Morale at Microsoft is really bad
Free Software Foundation Reaches 75% of Funding Goal
Not bad for this "Fosschild"
Slopwatch: 7 New Examples of Fake 'Linux' Slop Pieces (Plagiarism With Misinformation)
Serial Sloppers need to be shunned
Links 19/07/2025: Kapo-berg Settles, Software Patents Challenged
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 18, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 18, 2025
Links 18/07/2025: Peace With PKK and Connie Francis Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: Alhena 5.1.8 and Bornhack 2025
Links for the day
How to Top Up a "Limited Liability" With Even More Limitations (Dodging Accountability in the UK)
Some people call it a "shell game". Sometimes it's done for tax evasion purposes.
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Inches Towards 75% of Fund-Raising Target
Will the cutoff date be extended again?
Gemini Space (or Geminispace) Grows, But Usage of Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Drops Further
Ideally, all Gemini capsules should use self-signed certificates
Links 18/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs in Activision, The New Stack (Sponsored by Microsoft) Complains About Openwashing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/07/2025: OCC25 Gnus for Reading Usenet and RSS Feeds, Small Web Updates
Links for the day
[Meme] 9AM Meeting at Brett Wilson LLP
Brett Wilson LLP in space
Listing as Staff People Who Left the Company More Than Six Years Earlier
There are apparently no laws against that
Brian Fagioli Shovels Up LLM Slop (Plagiarism) Onto Slashdot, Then Uses Slashdot for Affirmation or as Badge of Honour
Notice how some of his latest slop is presented ("as featured on Slashdot")
Social Control Media Productivity
Snapping photos of the bone
The Law Firm SLAPPing Us For the Microsofters Lost 72% of Its Tangible Assets in the Past Year, According to Its Own Reports
That might help explain why they're willing to tolerate serial stranglers from Microsoft as clients
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity.com Slopfarm and Slopfarms Propped Up by Google News
"As LLM slop is foisted onto the WWW in place of knowledge and real content, it now gets ingested and processed by other LLMs, creating a sort of ouroboros of crap."
Links 18/07/2025: Weather Events and Health Hazards
Links for the day
Microsoft's All-Time Low in Finland
Microsoft is in a freefall
Security: Shane Wegner & Debian statement of incompetence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, July 17, 2025