Tiptoeing Around a Sleeping Giant?
by Rob Flickenger
I believe this is it:
http://www.ccianet.org/papers/cyberinsecurity.pdf
Now that I have had a moment to actually read the report that may have
gotten Dan Geer fired, I think I understand the situation a bit better. Yeesh. It's probably about 5% tech and 95% anti-Microsoft vitriol. It doesn't offer any solutions, it only repeats the mantra "Monoculture is bad so you should stop using Microsoft, only Microsoft won't let you". Taking just the objective points, the whole thing could be boiled down to a single page (or maybe just a paragraph).
Maybe the authors know their intended audience better than I do, but I still find it hard to believe that one's job would be threatened by such a silly paper. If I'm going to be fired over something I wrote, I sure hope that it reads better than that report!
Why all of the hooplah over something that might as well have come from the user comments on Slashdot? And perhaps more interestingly, with all of the buzz about this highly controversial report, why are so few sites linking to it?
Are journalists afraid of going the same route as Geer for criticizing the Microsoft juggernaut? Maybe the fact that the CTO of a major security corporation was let go after contributing to the report (on his own time!) is newsworthy, despite representatives from @Stake denying it. Maybe the text in question wasn't worth referring to, in the eyes of the editors (but then, why do some of them link to microsoft.com and nowhere else?)
Alas, we'll likely never know the real truth about Dan's situation or why the news outlets are careful to tiptoe around Microsoft's feelings. But if you find yourself in a position of being threatened to keep your opinions to yourself, even if you go to great lengths to make it clear that they are your opinions (and not those of your employer), I highly encourage you to speak your mind. If we find that we've built a sleeping giant, it's our duty to light a fire under them from time to time, whether they like it or not.
Have you ever been censored or threatned to keep quiet by your employer? (Anonymous contributions welcome! =)
5 Comments
| simonstl 2003-09-27 13:01:07 |
Monoculture a real problem I'm not sure that saying "it's just a rant on monoculture" is any kind of answer here. If anything, I'd argue the dangers of monoculture are worth presenting a good deal more loudly than that report does. (I don't see much in the content of the report that I disagree with strongly, though.)
|
| anonymous2 2003-09-27 15:50:44 |
Monoculture a real problem you're missing the point; while monoculture may be a problem, Geer, like the vast majority of the outspoken anti-Microsoft crowd, spent far too much time voicing his emotionally-charged viewpoint, and far too little time offering actual evidence. |
| anonymous2 2003-09-27 16:11:04 |
Traditional news sites seldom provide links Regarding the lack of links to the offending report: its not surprising. The newspaper sites don't provide many links as a rule, nor does CNet for some reason. Only a link to a corporation's home page is generally provided, apparently automatically. |
| anonymous2 2003-09-27 16:42:42 |
Monoculture a real problem Microsoft was found to have violated the antitrust laws in federal court. In that case, mountains of evidence were presented to back up the basic assertions about its monopolistic practices contained in this article.
|
| anonymous2 2003-09-29 03:17:07 |
journalists afraid? that would be a first...
|
