Why not? Consumers in this market really need to get a clue. Part one.
The US federal government have declared October to be 'national cybersecurity awareness month'. Considering how crucal cybersecurity is and considering the deplorable state of cybersecurity on the Internet, this is hardly a bad move. At least on paper.
It's when you get into the details you begin to realise how bad this really is.
As reported by Rixstep yesterday, the cybersecurity awareness effort in the US has essentially been hijacked and preempted by - Microsoft. Who've taken the opportunity not to do the right thing and clean up their own act but to fire broadsides at the competition and obfuscate and hide the real issues that plague us all.
So much for the so-called 'free enterprise system'.
And so in the spirit of making people aware in general: herewith a bit of 'Microsoft awareness'.
Microsoft are truly between a rock and a hard place and have been there for the longest time - in fact since the web revolution began in 1995 and most painfully since the 'Love Bug' hit in early 2000. Pranks gradually turned into major efforts by organised crime and the Redmond corporation did nothing.
And they did nothing because they can do nothing. Oh there are solutions to be sure - of course there are - but those solutions involve loosening the vise-like grip they have on the market. And they'd rather subject you to more of those 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' than risk losing their monopoly and their billions.
Microsoft Windows, no matter the version, wasn't built to be used in a connected 'Internetted' world and no number of hyper-this and hyper-that are ever going to change a thing. The Windows that gets clobbered by hundreds of thousands of strains of malware and recruits hundreds of millions of Windows PCs into lethal botnets is the same Windows you buy tomorrrow.
And you'll be intimidated into buying expensive antivirus subscriptions that can't really help you anyway. All the while the rest of the world don't even know what 'antivirus' means because they've never needed it and never will.
So what do Microsoft do instead of helping you? They employ 'security experts' in strategic global locations to subdue the unrest of the masses, to placate the powers that be and the elected representatives of government who are supposed to work on your behalf. These 'experts' may or may not have a background in computer science. Some do and some don't. And those who don't are given crash courses in basic computer technology and 'jargon'. Then they're set to work.
They're five in number all told. There's one for North America, one for the UK, one for the middle eastern area, and so forth. And their job is to get in good with governments, keep the home office informed, and so forth.
If you're wondering why you don't read more about the dangers of Microsoft products; if you're wondering why more governments don't simply say 'no' to Microsoft - they're most likely the reason why.
Microsoft aren't improving the security of their products - they're simply trying to bribe media sources and duly elected representatives into silence. And for the most part they've succeeded.
This is not the essence of the free market - these are the symptoms of market manipulation.