Google has threatened to expose fellow technology corporations if they fail to solve the software susceptibility issue within the following ninety days. This new leak has nagged not just Apple, Microsoft and other companies. But has also aggravated technology watchers who may feel a bit prickly with the company’s approach, which can be seen as Google acting as an ‘umpire’.
Google’s Project Zero is a group of elite that search their own and their opponent’s software for possible safety loopholes, which could bring out susceptibility issues. The elite group consequently issue a time limit to fix all the issues. However, the company wants rapid fixing of such dangerous vulnerability because of the way hackers act when such problematic issues have been recognized.
Two of the industry’s principal technology companies, Apple and Microsoft have refused to comment on the advance; but some others have spoken out their opinions. Others in the business have shown their disapproval of the issue, maintaining that such a decision would take over the function of the government and can also pose a great threat and danger to the security mechanisms of the companies.
A key person of the software security corporation Denim Group Ltd, John Dickson, scowled at Google’s decision. He called into question the part the company is trying to engage in by acting as a the executive arbitrator of the market place for susceptibility notification.
Dickson has made a statement in which he asserts that the righteous motives that Google has in mind can be called into question given the fact that they have ousted vulnerabilities for two of their largest competitors.
We are forced to recall a similar incident when Microsoft rebuked Google back in January speaking loud about the vulnerability issue and making it public. It was an added disadvantage that Microsoft was not able to solve the issue within a set period of time.
Chris Betz, leading director of the Microsoft Security Response Center, wrote a post last Sunday that aimed at outlining the situation of the Redmond company. He asserted that although the company did keep in accordance with Google’s declared time period for disclosure, the decisions that Google has made does do not feel like good principles but more like a “gotcha” situation in with users are the ones who may suffer. He went on to further comment on the issue by saying that Google sometimes makes decisions that are not always right for its users. Ending the post, he urged Google to make the security of customers a primary objective.
Though, no certified comments have been made by Microsoft this time around, the current move by Google will certainly create a lot of response in the coming days or weeks. While Google’s decision to go on record may seem like an insensitive and callous one since some of these issues cannot be solved immediately; the company feels it has a responsibility to keep the masses knowledgeable of certain problems that may reveal them to cybercriminals.
