Thursday, September 14, 2017

Perverse incentives for security updates

found on Quick Meme

There's a kernel of truth in this conspiracy theory. When Sun has figured out a way to monetize attempts to update their software (by nagging you and then pre-checking a checkbox to install a 3rd party toolbar) then there's something kind of suspicious about Java requiring a security update - the argument could be made that they have a financial incentive to leave a few vulnerabilities in the product in order to force users to go through the install process all over again and in at least some cases forget to uncheck the checkbox for that toolbar.

0 comments: