As many folks are probably aware, Netscape launched a "super secure" product that turned out to have a significant number of security holes. That sort of thing happens from time to time, so I'm not going to harp on it. However, one thing that really stuck out was a quote found across several articles (for example, http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5715360.html):
"We had been misinformed by an external security vendor that the Firefox security issues did not affect us," Netscape spokesman Andrew Weinstein said Friday. "Within hours of discovering that the vendor was not accurate, we had addressed those issues and posted an updated version of the browser."
When I was at Microsoft, one of my responsibilities was briefing the technical management of major customers on Longhorn with respect to application development. Given that these organizations included Fortune 500, government contractors, the US military, etc, these briefings usually included a significant security discussion. It got so common that I would begin each briefing with 3 slides on Windows XP Service Pack 2 (in development at the time) just to address the things they most cared about today. If I *ever*, at *any* time, implied that Microsoft wasn't responsible for the security of its products--whether in reference to past or future versions--it would have caused tremendous damage to our credibility with that customer.
The way I translate the above (putting the de-PR hat on) is:
"We built this product and wanted it to be secure. Since we don't have the ability and/or inclination to verify its security, we paid this other company to figure it out for us. They told us it was okay, so we slapped an installer around it and posted it to the Web. We didn't verify their results ourselves, so don't blame us!"
Like I said, I understand that things like this happen, but I just think that passing the buck is unacceptable for a company like AOL. Then again, the spokesperson may have been misquoted, which does happen. For their sake I hope it did, in which case they better get their PR org inline for letting this post as it is. Even when you say stupid things to the press (which I have done too many times) good PR people (which I always had the best of) can get your statements clarified to avoid embarrassments like this.
Remember Me
© Copyright 2009 Ed Kaim Theme Design by Bryan Bell newtelligence dasBlog 1.7.5016.2 || | Page rendered at 1/6/2009 12:11:06 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00) Reset | Candid Blue | Movable Radio Heat | DasBlog | Movable Radio Blue | Just Html | sharpLogic | Slate | Discreet Blog Blue