Bonum Certa Men Certa

Parroting Microsoft Talking Points About Computer Security

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 09, 2024

Scarlet Macaw

Microsoft spreads a whole bunch of truly incredible (and incredulous) lies about security and even made a choir of idiots to sing those lies. Some of them, with no background in Computer Science, resort to conflating outsourcing to Microsoft with "security" and some misuse words like "zero-trust" and "confidential" to paint NSA back doors as a form of "security".

This past summer Richard M. Stallman (RMS) openly complained in a public event that the term "security" had come to mean all sorts of ridiculous things, including the very oppose of real security. Similarly, he habitually commented that George W. Bush insisted he was standing for freedom and liberty even when actively crushing both.

The other day we saw the article "The Biggest Inhibitor of Cybersecurity: The Human Element" (we recently blacklisted this publisher; it publishes lots of unsavoury PR and lies/spin).

"Still blaming the victim for using the software and systems as advertised," an associate said about it, "despite the software and systems actually not being fit for purpose..."

This is a very Microsoft-y pattern. The Microsofters love to shift blame to the users, the sysadmins, and those who exploit the holes rather than those responsible for these holes (Microsoft).

We need to reject headlines that say Iran or North Korea or China or Russia compromised some system and instead ask what it was that let them break in. Whose fault was it? Why were holes present? Very often it turns out to have been Microsoft's fault, but the mainstream media stops short of saying that or does not even bother to investigate the real cause (culprit). Headlines that blame Putin and Kim probably attract more clicks and offer political fodder.

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