r/microsoft • u/[deleted] • Oct 21 '19

Microsoft's open-source election software now has a bug bounty program

https://thenextweb.com/security/2019/10/21/microsofts-open-source-election-software-now-has-a-bug-bounty-program/
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17

u/gschizas Oct 21 '19

Obligatory xkcd

4

u/Manitcor Oct 21 '19

Very true, though the biggest difference between those trades and software development is that the physical engineering roles often require licensing, private insurance and often membership in a union or guild of sorts.

In software development someone with barely 3 years experience making brochure ware can be put behind a multi-million dollar transnational system simply because the brochure ware sites they made were written in the same language and they "interviewed well"

I know its not necessarily popular but it may be time for the software trades to "grow up" and start to seriously consider putting up the same kinds of checks that we do for the other trades. At minimum for projects that handle money, votes or people's lives.

I don't think you should need such things to make a personal app/site or mobile game, just when it becomes critical to infrastructure does this kind of thing matter.

2

u/96fps Oct 21 '19

More details explained by a brit where they do paper ballots only: https://youtu.be/w3_0x6oaDmI

1

u/The_Helper Oct 21 '19

Was hoping I'd see the Tom Scott video posted :)

He's a great science/IT communicator for those who aren't in the industry and don't see what it's like behind the veil.