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Holding Developers Liable For Bugs

sebFlyte writes "According to a ZDNet report, Howard Schmidt, ex-White House cybersecurity advisor, thinks that developers should be held personally liable for security flaws in code they write. He doesn't seem to think that writing poor code is entirely the fault of coders though: he blames the education system. He was speaking in his capacity as CEO of a security consulting firm at Secure London 2005."

6 of 838 comments (clear)

  1. Hey, God by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    About this little thing called "the mosquito" which we received as part of Earth v1.0....

  2. Education system? by JemalCole · · Score: 5, Funny

    He doesn't seem to think that writing poor code is entirely the fault of coders though: he blames the education system.

    You know, I don't think it's entirely his fault that he's an idiot: I blame the education system.

  3. Re:Send jobs overseas, CMM by Velox_SwiftFox · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're leaving out the lower levels. I take it CMM-1 is the level where if the software suddenly causes monkeys to fly out of the butt of the user, that it is perfectly within the specification?

  4. Re:Who is the bad guy? by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Whatever happened to holding the people who exploit vulnerabilities responsible?

    That's crazy talk! What are you thinking, man? Next you'll suggest that when I walk down the street with my entire head completely exposed and vulnerable, that somehow the mugger than hits me over the head with a baseball bat may somehow be responsible for the outcome! See how crazy you are?

    Or, when I lock my door and leave my house for the day, and a guy comes along with a sledgehammer and just breaks in anyway - I suppose you think that the person with the sledgehammer is somehow responsible for that? Totally twisted, man.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  5. Code of Hammurabi by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    In the Code of Hammurabi, 18th Century B.C.:

    If a contractor builds a house for a man and does not build it strong enough, and the house which he builds collapses and causes the death of the house owner, than the contractor shall be put to death.

    If it causes the death of the son of the owner, then the son of the contractor shall be put to death.

    This is of particular interest to me as I contribute code to software used to design steel buildings. I would not want to see this code reapplied today to dwellings or programming.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    1. Re:Code of Hammurabi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      "If a contractor builds a house for a man and does not build it strong enough, and the house which he builds collapses and causes the death of the house owner, than the contractor shall be put to death.
      If it causes the death of the son of the owner, then the son of the contractor shall be put to death.
      "

      If it causes the death of the owner's boss, then the contractor's boss shall be put to death.