Ballmer to crackers: this PC ain't big enough for the both of us

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/32857.html

By John Leyden
Posted: 16/09/2003 

The recent deluge of Internet worms and security vulnerabilities
affecting Windows will not affect Microsoft's ability to "innovate",
CEO Steve Ballmer pledged yesterday.

Ballmer told an audience at the Churchill Club in Santa Clara,
California, that "better security and constant innovation go hand in
hand". Essentially this was a message for the markets- all these
security problems are not going to slow our production of newer,
bigger, more expensive stuff.

On the plus side, Ballmer acknowledged that Blaster and the like are
causing customers "pain" and that patching is a problem. He said
Microsoft felt "humbled by the events of the last few weeks".

Against this he failed to demonstrate much of an understanding about
managing risk, the core of the security problem.

Instead Ballmer compared IT companies to town marshals (or safe
manufacturers?) facing down the threat of various black hat hackers in
the pursuit of protect homesteaders / boosting shareholder returns.

"Today we're faced with, I think, another new and growing challenge to
innovation, and that's the need for the highest levels of security in
a world that frankly is full of thieves, con artists, terrorists and
hackers," he said.

Warming to his theme, Ballmer came up with a Wild West analogy.

"In the Old West the banks didn't shut down because of the bank
robbers; they improved the banks, they improved law enforcement, they
went after it," said Sheriff Ballmer.

"Issues of safety have not stopped innovation in the auto industry.  
They continue to move forward innovation and safety, and they've even
helped spur many of the better technologies like air bags and ABS
brake systems," he added.

[Memo to Steve - We've said this to you before: drop the car /
computer analogies. It makes people think of crashes.]

Ballmer is mindful of the fact IT spending has decreased even as the
US economy as a whole expanded 2.4 per cent last year. Much of his
speech concentrates on the value that IT developments bring to the
wider economy. Thinking about IT as a cost centre is short-sighted, he
argues.

Post Dotcom Bubble, companies are more cautious about spending,
Ballmer acknoweldges. But argues that companies which fail to invest
in IT risk getting left behind by their competitors.

He rejects any idea that IT as a "transforming technology has really
reached the end of the road.

"Cutting costs is very important but doing it without thinking about
long-term productivity will certainly, in my perspective, be a
shortsighted decision," he said.

Wither Trustworthy Computing?

Returning to security, Ballmer refers to the progress of Microsoft's
Trustworthy Computing initiative, the programme launched last year
with the aim of making Microsoft's products more secure.

He argues that Microsoft is making progress but admits there is "not
enough evidence of progress".

Ballmer argues, counter-intuitively in our opinion, that all the
vulnerabilities recently discovered in Windows might be a good thing
in helping Redmond develop more secure code.

"One area of investment that we're pursuing is what's called
post-processing of source code to find vulnerabilities, so you
actually go back and you have tools that look through the source code
and help identify potential vulnerabilities. And it is true that those
tools do get dramatically better with each vulnerability as we learn
and can teach them to help spot whole new classes of attacks that come
from hackers," Ballmer said.

"We're working to determine how we can take those tools and make them
available to other independent software vendors in the industry as
well as corporate developers to help everybody raise their performance
in this issue," he added.

Ballmer said the software giant is working with law enforcement in
tracking down attackers; and it is seeking to make applying patches
far easier. Microsoft is working with industry partners in promoting
better security among end users. Security is more than just a question
of software vulnerabilities, Ballmer argued.

"There are many ways to work this problem: shields up, as well as
improving the basic security and quality in the products," he said.

By way of example, Ballmer referred to the Internet connection
firewall built into XP but neatly avoided mentioning that this is not
enabled by default. If it was enabled by default the effect of the
worm would have been greatly diminished.

That's one example of the conflict between functionality and security
in Microsoft's development efforts which lies behind so many security
problems (e.g. worms that exploit flaws with the preview function in
Outlook to execute).

Unless and until Microsoft finds a way of applying the security
philosophy behind Windows Server 2003 (secure by default, design and
deployment) to its earlier products its software will remain
fundamentally insecure.

And how are organisations going to find the time to innovate when they
are engaged in constant firefighting?

There's also a sound business case for Microsoft to make its products
more secure. There's only so much pain Windows users will take from
security problems before they look for other options.

With every Windows worm, the alternatives (such as Linux on the
desktop) look that little bit more attractive. The rich variety of
applications available for Windows is its trump card and will keep
many tied to the platform, at least over the shorter term. But longer
term, Microsoft is right to be worried, since any move to open source
software would be very difficult to reverse.



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