Microsoft’s Security Dilemma
I am not always an admirer of the way Microsoft does things, but I have to say that I sympathize with them as they face the dilemma of dealing with security problems. It’s almost a Catch-22 situation.
One of the reasons behind the success of Microsoft has been their efforts at creating interoperability for their various programs. Mac fans may make derisive comments about the theft of ideas, but the standardization of interfaces by Microsoft and the ease of combining different Windows functions have helped to make computers easier to use. This ease of use, however, contains the seed of security trouble and the seed has grown into a major problem, largely due to the Internet. ActiveX is a perfect example. This technology was designed to create interactivity between various components and programs and leads to greatly increased versatility and flexibility. It is precisely this flexibility that also causes security holes. (More on ActiveX can be found here.) Linux fanciers may gloat about all these conflicts between security and usability but there is no way that the average person is going to use a Linux desktop in the foreseeable future.
The conflict between security and usability is why I see Microsoft facing a big dilemma. Everything they do to make computers more accessible to the average person is likely to make security more difficult. Locked doors are harder to use than open ones and every effort to tighten security makes the computer a little bit harder to use. In my opinion, it is simply not possible to have a general purpose, full-featured computer that is both as easy to use as a TV and is completely safe on the Internet. I am afraid that computers, or at least PCs, may get harder to use in the future rather than easier. You can see that already in the Service Pack 2 upgrade of Windows XP. The new security features added in SP2 are welcome but they are sometimes quite a nuisance. This newest version of Windows XP is clearly harder to use in some ways and is slower. Also, my personal experience is that some of the monthly security patches have slowed my system down. This is all without even considering the slow-down caused by non-Microsoft security programs such as anti-virus software.
I have no inside knowledge but the release of the new Windows Vista is obviously being affected by the problems of dealing with security issues. It was previously sidetracked by the need to create Windows XP SP2 and there are stories on the Internet about current problems that involve security. Internet Week has a story on how the much-touted search tool contains a security risk. On the other hand, Ed Bott has a blog on whether Vista is too protective.
It would be nice to live in an environment where all the computer users were trustworthy and competent. In the real world we have to deal with criminals, sociopaths, and the clueless and that means a lot less convenience for everybody.
Microsoft has some of the best talent in the world and if anybody can resolve the conflict between security and usability, they can. I just hope that the pressure to release Vista for the Christmas season in 2006 does not lead to too many partial solutions with unwanted consequences for all users of Windows.
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