Debate Over Software Flaw Disclosure at Black Hat by Marcus Ranum

In a contentious keynote speech that created an uproar at the Black Hat Briefings security conference here yesterday, security researcher Marcus Ranum charged that the full disclosure of software vulnerabilities isn't improving computer security. Instead, Ranum said, it only encourages attacks . . . In a contentious keynote speech that created an uproar at the Black Hat Briefings security conference here yesterday, security researcher Marcus Ranum charged that the full disclosure of software vulnerabilities isn't improving computer security. Instead, Ranum said, it only encourages attacks by what he called "armies of script kiddies." Many security experts and corporate users believe that publicizing software flaws will improve security by forcing software vendors to improve the quality of their products and to quickly fix potentially damaging bugs - a point that was reiterated by several audience members and other speakers at the Black Hat conference.

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