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Criminal Threats vs. Researchers: Microsoft's Disclosure Crisis
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit threatened criminal prosecution against a security researcher for publishing zero-day exploit code — a move that could chill bug reporting industry-wide. Today's briefing unpacks the responsible disclosure debate and what it means for the future of vulnerability research.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit has threatened criminal prosecution against a security researcher for publishing zero-day exploit code without coordinating disclosure first. That's not a policy reminder.
Responsible disclosure has been the working framework for decades. A researcher finds a vulnerability, notifies the vendor privately, gives them reasonable time to patch, then publishes.
Here's what matters in practice. If researchers believe that publishing a vulnerability, even after a vendor has delayed or ignored a report, could end in criminal prosecution, many of them will stop reporting to that vendor entirely.
The deeper issue is the legal weaponization of disclosure standards. Coordinated disclosure was designed to protect customers by ensuring vulnerabilities get fixed before they're exploited in the wild.
Two things are unresolved. First, whether Microsoft will actually pursue legal action or whether this was a pressure tactic.
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