Dan Geer mentions Microsoft and the Cali Cartel in the same paragraph:

If the U.S. really wants to get Bolivian farmers to stop growing coca, then we’ll have to make growing lettuce in the Continental U.S. illegal (thus pricing up something you can grow in Bolivia’s thin air and chill temps), or we’ll have to outbid the Cali cartel for the crop in full. Ditto Redmond; MSFT can’t keep the exploit writers from doing what they do except by making them an offer they can’t refuse.

With $5B in underutilized cash laying around, it is almost criminal that MSFT hasn’t just cornered the market. Of course, the longer they wait the more the price to buy out the opposition rises and, in fact, that $5B may no longer be enough though there’s no doubt a creative pricing structure would have real effects, such as to pay informants 2X what they pay code jocks.

— Punditry: Will Microsoft buy flaws? Ryan Naraine, Zero Day, March 19th, 2007

Dan didn’t say Microsoft is the Cali Cartel, merely that what they’re dealing with in terms of a criminal exploit culture is the equivalent. Continue reading →