Ethan Marcotte now blogs at Unstoppable Robot Ninja.

Weblog entry:

Homeland security.

I’m still shaking my head over the Department of Homeland Security establish[ing] a key partnership relationship with Microsoft, especially after the most recent spate of security advisories (c.f., USAToday, iDefense (PDF) for a couple examples). I mean, think about it: all of those Homeland Security employees running Outlook? It’d just take one self-replicating e-mail that links to the <input type crash> exploit (do not click on this link if you’re running IE), and poof. And with all of the spyware reputed to be baked into Windows XP, it is pretty amusing to think of Microsoft watching the watchers, as it were.

But putting aside the boneheaded machinations of the bureaucratic mind for a moment, this contract could lead to good things for consumers…well, possibly. As a friend of mine mentioned, the DoHS very well might come down hard on Microsoft on its various security problems. While their reasoning for settling on a $90 million dollar fixer-upper like Windows XP is beyond me, any improvements to Windows that trickle down to consumers can only be a good thing. Granted, given the speed with which Microsoft innovates, I’m sure it’ll be roughly 2012 before we reap any of those benefits, but still…

A guy can hope, right?

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