How does Microsoft get away with it? Their Windows products are constantly shown up to be badly written and security-blind. Yet the world keeps buying the crap.

According to the BBC in October 2004:

Cash machine networks could soon be more susceptible to computer viruses, a security firm has warned. The warning is being issued because many banks are starting to use the Windows operating system in machines. Already there have been four incidents in which Windows viruses have disrupted networks of cash machines running the Microsoft operating system. [BBC]

A year earlier, in November 2003, Windows For Devices reported:

According to several news reports, two U.S. financial institutions were hit with a computer worm that invaded automated teller machines (ATMs) running Windows XP Embedded, in August. The ATMs were manufactured by Diebold, one of the world's leading ATM suppliers. [Windows For Devices]

And most tellingly:

a patch for the...vulnerability had been available from Microsoft more than a month before the incident, but had not been installed in the ATMs. [Windows For Devices]

In 2003 New Scientist reported:

However, programming an ATM to spew out cash would take more than a vulnerability in the operating system. It would require access to the private source code that controls the mechanical opening and shutting of the machine....Loomstein says the only solution is to make sure security patches are up to date. Diebold's response is to install all new ATMs with firewall software, starting from December. [New Scientist]

It is truly frightening that something as ropey as Windows should be let loose on something like cashpoints/ATMs. Especially when the idiots that do use Windows in crucial applications haven't even got the brains to update the security patches. So bad programming and incompetent companies leave your information vulnerable from criminals.

10:29:39 PM