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Former MS Security Strategist Joins Mozilla
Handset writes "Former Microsoft security strategist Window Snyder is joining Mozilla to lead the company's effort to protect its range of desktop applications from malicious hacker attacks. eweek.com reports that Snyder, who was responsible for security sign-off for Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003, will spearhead Mozilla's security strategy and improve its communications with external hackers and bug finders."
a human trojan has been inserted into Mozilla?
glad Safari uses the khtml engine...
Will the Mozilla fans throw their arms up in disgust (An MS Security expert - that's a contradiction!) or will they suddenly be supportive of someone they have effectively been bagging for years? (An MS Security expert for Mozilla! - what a coup!)
dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
hooray..lets have it...chairs all around..here you go..two for you...Redmond Cherry or Vista White?
Hey, I am for security and all, but somebody needs to call the phone numbers on his resume. I heard that Microsoft doesn't have a "security" department.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
We can draw two possible conclusions from this. Either a: MS' security team was made of good people who were doing the best they could for such a large project with such a large user base and extensive backwards compatability, and thus that Windows security was the best it could have been (even if that wasn't so good). Or Mozilla's security is going to go down the tubes. It's a slashdot paradox! Clearly we can't grant #1, because that wouldn't be sufficiently critical of MS, but be can't grant #2 either because we love Mozilla. I'm just glad Mozilla doesn't think this way.
Philosophy.
Cmon Slashdot, a guy from Microsoft whose first name is "Window" and had a job implementing security at Microsoft??? These April Fools jokes get dumber every year.
This has to be a joke. Microsoft actually employed a named Window S. ??
Is he required to change his name to Mozilla Snyder now?
Sorry.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
Window's an old friend of mine, so let me be the first to congratulate her here. W00t!
So the security world used to be pretty hostile to MS, before, you know, XPSP2, MSRC got taken seriously, etc. Window showed up before all of that, and pretty much took our abuse year in, year out. And then...things got better.
She'll deny any direct cause and effect there, but she was _the_ interface between Microsoft and the various security cons for quite some time, and I think at least some of the reason we got certain concessions (like 24 hour response time out of MSRC) is that she was there to hear people say things like "I dunno, why should I warn MS, they're just gonna sit on it anyway."
Firefox is not without problems (understatement). I'm looking forward to seeing what Window can accomplish w/ Mozilla.
Coming soon to Mozilla: ActiveM plug-ins! Now with the exciting "FORMAT C:" functionality, and complete integration with BOTH kinds of email software - Outlook AND Outlook Express!
I have discovered a truly remarkable
WTF is this? most of the first dozen or two posts are aimed ot be (and are modded) funny. I thought this was supposed to a forum for serious discussion, not a fucking comedy club wanna-be.
if they're not already married to other people, Window and Linus need to get married. They could even name their first child Lindow.
She doesn't seem to be a Windows fan either. Proof:0 /5 /
http://www.flickr.com/photos/windowsnyder/5820055
http://www.flickr.com/photos/windowsnyder/4313248
So the security world used to be pretty hostile to MS, before, you know, XPSP2, MSRC got taken seriously, etc.
Used to be? Maybe you see a different view of them when they hire you for security consulting and fly you out for their Blue Hat conferences and such. But from my outsider perspective, Microsoft is still a security disaster. Not only have we continued to see hundreds of serious vulnerabilities throughout 2006, but MS has in many cases made us wait weeks or months before patching widely exploited bugs. Heck, another actively exploited MS Office vulnerability was just discovered in the wild. If we're lucky, MS will cough up a patch on September 12, otherwise they'll probably leave users vulnerable until the next "patch Tuesday" on October 10.
Meanwhile, Microsoft recently re-issued MS06-042 with a fix for a vulnerability introduced by their first attempted fix. And they openly admit that they excluded eEye from the advisory credits because eEye embarrassed MS by making their incompetence public. MS is more interested in petty vendetas against researches than actually fixing the flaws.
Microsoft has made a few positive steps toward securing their products in that last couple of years, but I think most of their efforts and successes are more in the PR realm than anything with technical merit. They have spent so much money sponsoring conferences (their money does come with strings attached) and paying off security researches, that many people seem reluctant to criticize them.
OK, enough anti-MS ranting from me for now :). My main point in
replying is actually to agree with you about Window. She is extremely
smart and talented, and her defection to Mozilla is great news for a
product which really needs more security
attention. We had lunch last week to discuss Mozilla security and Window has some great ideas. Mozilla may already be much more secure than IE, but we should set a much higher bar than that! Best of luck at your new position, Window!
-Fyodor
Insecure.Org
She (not he!) is such a babe, I could ALMOST forgive her for being named after Microsoft's flagship product!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Comment removed based on user account deletion