Air Force Warns Microsoft/Others to Tighten Security

FattyBoeBatty wrote to us with a story from USA Today about the the Air Force and security concerns. The Microsoft point is the primary point of the article, but the AF CIO has also made the point at industry forums, and evidently with Cisco. Specific companies aside, I think it's a good thing that organizations are beignning to realize the exposure they have on security issues - and maybe will actually start to take steps to close them.

Great

[Anonymous Coward]

It's good to know that the people we're relying on for air defense of our nation are smart enough to NOT open the Love Bug email. I think I'm moving now.

real CIO

[The Iconoclast]

i guess in the airforce the CIO is a REAL O. ;-)

canadian air force

[Toshito]

The canadian air force is also putting a lot of pressure on punch card manufacturers to force them to close a lot a security holes in their software...

Too High? (troll)

[ctp]

The Air Force wants M$ to fix their swiss cheez security?

When the Air Force says "Aim High", I didn't think they meant impossibly high.

Re:Try as they will..

[jmb-d]

you think the Military is going to get any progress??

Sure -- the military has weapons that go *boom*, as opposed the government as a whole, which has a Justice Department that just goes bust.

Late Edition Follow-up

[sharkey]

MS President Steve Ballmer has responded to statements made by Air Force CIO Gilligan today. Ballmer paid a visit to Gilligan, whacked him with his hat and stated, "You'll do as we say, Little Buddy!"

haha!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Air Force official has warned Microsoft to dramatically improve the security of its software or risk losing the Air Force as a customer"
Admiral C to Bill Gates.

Bill,
As part of our special deal, the Air Force has been actively using and promoting Microsoft products for the past few months. We've also suffered the greatest percentage of fatal losses to date. If this goes on, there won't be an air force to promote you.
So, please, I'm begging you, tighten the security just a little or risk losing yet another customer.

7000 programmers

[Rice-Pudding]

Gates directed 7,000 programmers to spend February scouring the Windows operating system for openings hackers might exploit to steal data or shut down systems.

Wow, 7000 programmers! I bet they figure out how to close the barn door.

80% redundancy?

[Anonymous Coward]

its in the command structure, of course. How many people do you have telling you how to wait for fedex?