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Symantec (or any software company) isn't going to comment to a reporter about why it's product didn't perform adequately, regardless of whether it's related to

Symantec (or any software company) isn't going to comment to a reporter about why it's product didn't perform adequately, regardless of whether it's related to that reporters parent organization. If a reporter asked Oracle for a comment every time Tumblr went down because of something related to MySQL (I have no idea if Tumblr actually runs MySQL, that's just a hypothetical), the best they'd hear is "We don't comment about specific customer information."

tedunangst 14y ago
Surely the Times could waive whatever privacy rights they have? Your example would be more on target if Oracle told Tumblr that they couldn't comment. What I'm getting at is, "We don't want to comment on our product." is a lot closer to the truth, they're just trying to weasel out of saying that.
- m0nastic 14y ago
  Edit: It took me so long to write that that you edited your comment before I finished. ;) I think we're in agreement. It's not really about privacy (which was why when I saw the quote in the article, I giggled, and thought "That reporter's being funny"), it's about the fact that Symantec isn't even in a position to have a comment about it. If they were super on the ball and forthcoming, they might comment "We make software which is designed to protect users from the overwhelming majority of malware and viruses. There does not exist any solution which can completely guarantee safety from infection, but we have detected and stopped billions of threats." Don't get me wrong, the AV industry (actually much of the security industry) should be embarrassed by how fundamentally primitive things are; it's a bunch of horseshit. But they have absolutely nothing to gain by commenting about it, it would be walking into a hornet's nest. So they get to deflect it by saying they won't comment on a customer issue.
  - tedunangst 14y ago
    Sorry, I added the second part a little later.

tedunangst 14y ago

Surely the Times could waive whatever privacy rights they have? Your example would be more on target if Oracle told Tumblr that they couldn't comment. What I'm getting at is, "We don't want to comment on our product." is a lot closer to the truth, they're just trying to weasel out of saying that.

m0nastic 14y ago
Edit: It took me so long to write that that you edited your comment before I finished. ;) I think we're in agreement. It's not really about privacy (which was why when I saw the quote in the article, I giggled, and thought "That reporter's being funny"), it's about the fact that Symantec isn't even in a position to have a comment about it. If they were super on the ball and forthcoming, they might comment "We make software which is designed to protect users from the overwhelming majority of malware and viruses. There does not exist any solution which can completely guarantee safety from infection, but we have detected and stopped billions of threats." Don't get me wrong, the AV industry (actually much of the security industry) should be embarrassed by how fundamentally primitive things are; it's a bunch of horseshit. But they have absolutely nothing to gain by commenting about it, it would be walking into a hornet's nest. So they get to deflect it by saying they won't comment on a customer issue.
- tedunangst 14y ago
  Sorry, I added the second part a little later.