Gates at Security Conference

The headline is kind of an oxymoron, ain't it? I mean, the holes built into Windows and Office are perhaps the cause of computer security issues more than any other root cause.

Microsoft fundamentally built software to give people what they wanted -- people just didn't realize that they wanted security at all until it was about 10 years too late. So MS is playing catch-up now.

Of course, underneath this Nuremburg-like defense of "we just build the software that people want" is the overarching moral fact that if you as a software programmer know that secure software is important, and you fail to build it into your product, then aren't you kinda culpable for the results? I mean, look at the Nazi defense -- "we were just following orders" didn't cut it when it came to the results of their actions.

Similarly, it is highly ironic that Microsoft is now bowing over backwards to claim security credentials when these issues wouldn't even exist without their broken-by-design products. (I should say "our", but I'm trying to get away from my hyper-identification with MS.)

Oh, here are the details on the Gates speech at the RSA Conference.