Network Computing | Column | Security Watch | Growing Up with a Little Help from the Worm | Full Article | October 1, 2001 "Here's my question (actually, it's a few questions): When will enough be enough? When will the market stop accepting apologies? When will the market demand vendors increase their QA efforts? When will third-party validation efforts become the norm rather than the exception? When will consumers and decision-makers start caring enough about security to factor it into decision-making processes?"

Shipley clearly understands the root of the problem. Until we change our buying habits and consider security as a fundamental requirement that trumps bells and whistles, we'll continue to struggle through bouts of increasingly aggressive and insidious technology attacks.

I'm not advocating that we abandon functionality or compatibility requirements, only that we hold vendors accountable for the security profile (or lack thereof) of their products.