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Increased Software Vulnerability, Gov't Regulation

Posted by Hemos on from the the-perils-of-regulation dept.

PogieMT writes "An article in the New York Times (registration required) suggests that the rash of security flaws, viruses and worms is leading a push towards greater regulation by the government, which, according to the piece, has largely relied on the efforts of individual companies."

1 of 291 comments (clear)

  1. Regulation will stifle software by scruffy · · Score: 3, Informative
    Software engineering is unlike a lot of other engineering in that no one can predict with much certainty what a large program is going to do. This lack of certainly is not just bad engineering, it is a mathematically proven law of software. Add to that the fact that each computer runs a slightly different set of programs and is connected to a slightly different set of peripherals, then you have even a more impossible problem.

    Software on airplanes work reasonably well because they test the hell of it and two airplanes of the same model are pretty much the same. Also, the users of the software (airplane crews) are well-trained. The exteme testing and thorough training though makes it very expensive. I don't think we can afford to hire software engineer and tutor for each household.

    I would be afraid that regulation would not fully take into account the difficulties of making perfect software and dealing with untrained users.