Like the dying replicant in Blade RunnerI miss the days you wouldn’t believe when I was able to get into the bowels of my computer and type commands that obeyed me with predictable accuracy. Operating systems that weren’t updated at the worst possible time or companies that sold you a license for a program that wouldn’t stop working the moment their executives decided it was best for them to charge a subscription fee. I’m old enough to have experienced the advent of Windows 3.1 as a trauma, with its absurd windows and double clicks, and to survive it in a demonic way by disabling updates that reactivate like annoying ghosts.
Yesterday, the screens of the world went blue. An update from a software A security program that users did not even know they had contracted was loaded onto their terminals, executed itself and, like an old-fashioned virus, put them in a desperate loop of reboots, preventing them from accessing their terminals, their information and, ultimately, the tool with which they work, provide services and live. This “failure” affected thousands of entities and individuals around the world, including critical infrastructures such as airports and banks, and once again showed that our world depends on someone who writes bad code, on companies that do not review that code or on hackers who know that the vulnerabilities are in those harmless updates that are loaded like weapons of mass destruction onto computers around the globe.
As expected, the competitors of the affected company have already appeared, puffing out their chests, to bite the remains of its corpse. This does not happen to them, they say, although it happens to them. Like everyone. Because it is a systemic failure of the manufacturing of software which has its roots in the remote times of this industry. As we have observed in all technological markets in their origins, the rule was and continues to be “do not regulate”, because innovation is the new religion and lawyers are spoilsports to whom everything seems wrong. The only way for computing to flourish, they said and say, is to allow developers not to be responsible for how the programs they develop work. Or whether they work. The quality, security and reliability of the software software are less important than The Golden of the promised innovation. The pressure of a job well done cannot be put on the creators of the future world, that would have prevented them from spreading their saving wings over us. Moreover, since the client could parameterize the program, the supplier could not be sure of the operation of the device or take responsibility for its results.
This mantra developed by companies software to develop in a hurry it sank so deep that the software It is the only product on the market that is sold without a warranty and with a waiver of liability for any damage it may cause. What’s more, it doesn’t even have to perform the function for which it was licensed. This is known as the “as is” clause, and it means that you install a program as is, under your own responsibility, and if it doesn’t work, you have to complain to the master gunsmith. While the world of software has evolved from CDs to subscriptions that self-update without you being able to do anything about it, this principle remains unchanged. All legal attempts in the US to reverse this situation have ended in failure.
There are, however, small movements in the environment of the software embedded in medical devices; because, if it is already difficult for the client to take control of his PC, it is even more difficult for a patient to make a decision about the safety of what is implanted in him. Still, even in environments where human life may be at risk, development companies resist accepting that it is time to admit some kind of responsibility. We all – users, companies, regulators – ignore the elephant in the room and blame the house owner for not auditing his elephant supplier for the collapse, not that elephants have weight.
The EU and the US cannot continue to impose punishable obligations on companies for failing to control their supply chain when suppliers do not do their job properly because they have no incentive to do so. Even the most diligent company, with the most stringent controls, has not been able to protect itself from harm. software. Only when the responsibility for software take down a development company and they will stop taking down the world.
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