Abner Stories

Hacker Extinction?

I doubt Scott Charney's Trustworthy Computing group at Microsoft and the marketing exec who tried to run this advertisement spoke much before this ad went to press. Charney's group is too savvy to be the source of a message claiming MS products are so secure hackers will become extinct. If a marketing exec is able to run ads like this, it does demonstrate the extent of cultural change MS needs to instill in the organization, before everybody understands and can achieve the goals of the Trustworthy Computing initiative.

On the other hand, the conspiracy theorist might say the Trustworthy Computing initiative is simply a marketing ploy that will not change anything about MS products. Attempting to run this ad reinforces the marketing ploy argument.

For some great commentary check out the /. conversation.

This is one small part of what makes marketing security so hard - when you try to claim victory, people in the know point at you and laugh.