Media: Users come in for a bashing in The Register's Security Thinkpiece

"The clueless users who refuse to upgrade" by Tim Mullen of SecurityFocus writing in the The Register is not kind to the folks who have been opening email attachments lately. In fact, his remedy, feeling that education has failed, is to inflict upgrades on everybody by withdrawing support for older versions of software that are more liable to allow breaches of security.

'Many will be quick to point out that it is Microsoft's "crappy code" that allows people to open attachments in the first place, but let's take a look at that: all "recent" Microsoft software does not, in fact, allow one to do so - not easily, anyway. Outlook 2000's "e-mail security patch" was released almost four years ago. And though still officially supported, that product is three major versions in the past. Security years are like dog years, so this is like using a product made back in 1976.

'The only thing in my house that was around in '76 is me, and possibly that pink fuzzy thing in my refrigerator.'

Read it because it's amusingly written and touches on the important social issue in security - perhaps without coming up with the solution.

Associated Link: The Register: 'The clueless users who refuse to upgrade'

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