Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Mircosoft smells the coffee
With respect to computer security issues, Microsoft is---and certainly aspires to remain---what Mancur Olson called a "privilege group": an entity that benefits so much from a secure cybersphere that is should be willing to pay for that security itself, rather than leave it up to the collective action of others.
For the non-economically inclined, I should note that computer security is a collective good (just as immunization of humans against biolgical viruses is); other people's security precautions make me safer by reducing viral epidemics, and by discouraging network probing as a fruitless endeavor. If everyone else is using a virus checker, and updating it daily, I'll be so much safer that I probably won't need one myself---and there's the dilemma, free riding.
The oldest solution in the book to free riding is a privileged group. MS presides over an operating system monopoly which also happens to be a monocultural breeding ground for viruses. The insecurity of Windows is one of its least attractive features, and has encouraged migration to lesser known alternatives like Linux. MS could reduce the long-term threats to its monopoly by taking the security dilemma onto its own soldiers and bundling free security software with its OS. And they are finally realizing this...
A question: does this run afoul of antitrust? (in theory, I mean; of course the Bush DoJ won't care...)
For the non-economically inclined, I should note that computer security is a collective good (just as immunization of humans against biolgical viruses is); other people's security precautions make me safer by reducing viral epidemics, and by discouraging network probing as a fruitless endeavor. If everyone else is using a virus checker, and updating it daily, I'll be so much safer that I probably won't need one myself---and there's the dilemma, free riding.
The oldest solution in the book to free riding is a privileged group. MS presides over an operating system monopoly which also happens to be a monocultural breeding ground for viruses. The insecurity of Windows is one of its least attractive features, and has encouraged migration to lesser known alternatives like Linux. MS could reduce the long-term threats to its monopoly by taking the security dilemma onto its own soldiers and bundling free security software with its OS. And they are finally realizing this...
A question: does this run afoul of antitrust? (in theory, I mean; of course the Bush DoJ won't care...)
