[LINK] Identity theft virus infects 10,000 computers

[Rick Welykochy]

--- Rick Welykochy <pirkeepie at yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> As Bruce Schneier keeps reminding the IT industry, this kind of nasty behaviour
> on the part of man and software alike will continue until software manufacturers
> are held legally liable for the scant regard they place on security.

I just thought of something in this regard. How would one hold the often multiple
and disconnected creators of a FOSS product to account for their security blunders?
It is easy enough to target and take action against a particular software
company. Much harder to target individuals across multiple jurisdictions in
multiple countries. 

As well, I suppose that legislation that exposes software creators to such liability
would have a chilling effect on open source (and other) software. e.g. if I contribute
some changes to the Firefox browser and this change results the identity theft of
10,000 individuals, I'd be toast.

cheers
rickw



		
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