> What's worse, in several jurisdictions (some places in the US included, IIRC), if a company is found to have caused damages based on this sort of "negligence"

> What's worse, in several jurisdictions (some places in the US included, IIRC), if a company is found to have caused damages based on this sort of "negligence", the developers are legally to blame - not management. [citation needed] Company employees in the US (including software developers) are shielded from personal liability by their companies, unless that liability was created by breaking the law or gross negligence (with the latter being extremely difficult to prove). The company can fire the developer for being incompetent or negligent, but the company would still be on the hook for any damages. The same is true when outsourcing development to a third-party development house. The client company may be able to sue the development company, but the individual developers would be shielded from personal liability by whoever they worked for. The only situation I can think of where a developer would be personally liable for buggy or insecure software is if they signed and sealed source code as a professional engineer (this is practically non-existent), or if they were freelancing and contracting with companies directly. In both cases, they would be eligible--and often required by their clients--to purchase insurance against errors and omissions.