Insecure Code - Vendors or Developers To Blame?

Annto Dev writes "Computer security expert, Bruce Schneier feels that vendors are to blame for 'lousy software'. From the article: 'They try to balance the costs of more-secure software--extra developers, fewer features, longer time to market--against the costs of insecure software: expense to patch, occasional bad press, potential loss of sales. The end result is that insecure software is common...' he said. Last week Howard Schmidt, the former White House cybersecurity adviser, argued at a seminar in London that programmers should be held responsible for flaws in code they write."

Comments

E&O by company or by employee

[Godeke]

Let's see: do we hold employees at an auto factory responsible when unrealistic timetables means shoddy workmanship, or do we hold the employer who chooses speed to market over quality responsible? If that failure means the death of someone, do we sue the manufacturer or the guy who made the poor weld?

Large software companies have more in common with factories than they do with law firms or medical practices, two places where the liability *is* on the individual. The employees don't get to choose how much time is spent designing quality and security into the product, nor do they get to choose how much quality assurance is done on the back end (although that is a lesser solution to quality code, it is still necessary).

The day that every programmer is licensed the way that doctors and lawyers are is the day I will reassess this position, but for now programmers are *not* in the position to make the decisions that lead to quality code. I'm not convinced that licensing would ensure that, but without licensing coders are nothing more that code churners cranking to the beat of the employers drum.

it's all about EULA

[Thud457]

That's ok, it's covered in the EULA -- the vendor's not responsible for anything. Since the developers are either employed by or are contractors for the vendor, they're similarly protected from any responsibility. So it boils down to caveat emptor -- test, test, and retest before accepting any software product.

Too bad you have to click through the EULA before you can test it, suckers!

RTF-REAL-A from wired

[dzfoo]

The real article by Bruce Schnier is in Wired:

http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69247,00. html

Its more interesting than the sound-bite-full ZD-Net summary.

      -dZ.