"Alan" wrote in message
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.....
Why do Microsoft products need so many security updates? Surely after 10
years of development simple programs such as OE and IE should be shipped
free of bugs?

Because there are a lot more people out there trying to break them than MS
can put on making them. While the popular image of the virus writer is a
spotty kid working alone, much of the work is funded by the porn industry,
which is even richer than Bill Gates. Purely destructive viruses are almost
certainly the work of the lone geek, motivated either by a feeling of
superiority over anyone who does not use whatever he thinks is the 'right'
system or by a desire to be seen by his peers as the geekiest. Malware that
exploits weaknesses in the world's most popular programmes to allow the
spread of spam, illegal hosting, trojan dialers and the like, has most
likely been created by paid employees of the porn industry.

Colin Bignell