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U.S. cyber agency says SolarWinds hackers are 'impacting' state, local governments
And... the market rewards them
'What's the alternative?' SolarWinds boosts security firms' bottom lines
Cybersecurity providers including FireEye Inc and Microsoft Corp could not prevent a huge network breach disclosed this month by numerous U.S. agencies and companies, yet their shares are soaring for a second straight week.
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Wall Street is betting that governments and businesses - having invested years in moving to digital infrastructure - will only accelerate purchases of the latest IT tools.“What’s the alternative?” said Venkatesh Shankar, marketing professor at Texas A&M University.
Airbag recalls or Listeria outbreaks tend to affect shares within a narrow supply chain, from restaurants and auto dealers down to parts and ingredients suppliers, he said.
At the time of writing, the SolarWind stock price dropped on YtY from $18.55 a year ago, to $15.75 now. Crazy as it may sound after being hacked, the recommendation is "Buy", because "What's the alternative?"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by shortscreen on Tuesday December 29 2020, @07:14PM (6 children)
Horribly broken, unreliable, and outright abusive software can capture market share and generate revenue just fine. Look at Windows 10. The vendors themselves will proudly tell you how shitty their current product is, in the sales pitch for the upcoming product that you will buy to replace it.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday December 29 2020, @09:50PM (5 children)
For products/services/investments, security, documentation, and customer support are things that most people don't base purchasing decisions on. Reliability/durability and quality are usually attached to brand names, but if you're willing to buy a jacket that will come apart at the seams/purse that shows creases or starts having bits flake off and replace them every so often [moneywise.com] or keep a spare available, those considerations go out the window as well. If any of these things matter to you, vote with your money, get some friends, and have all of you submit similar complaints.
The majority of consumers, and definitely the market never care about those things. They'll just go with whatever's out there until it crosses an irritation threshold.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 30 2020, @06:16PM (4 children)
It's funny how so many people worship democracy and think voters can make good choices just once every few years, when most prove themselves unable to make good choices every day.
Yes, democracy may be better than the other options in many scenarios, but it's grossly overrated.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday December 31 2020, @12:45AM (2 children)
What do you suggest in its place? Remember, even very smart people are still people (high INT is not a guarantee of high WIS).
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Socrastotle on Thursday December 31 2020, @07:20PM (1 child)
It can be modified without throwing it out altogether. Too wide an electorate and democracy becomes ineffective due to it turning into a game of mass manipulation. Too small an electorate and power becomes too concentrated. One interesting idea is to try to get the best of both worlds. Strong local representation, but higher level representation that can focus on the bigger picture of the nation instead of the politics local decisions. Basically a tiered democracy with tighter constituency:representative pairing.
- Country is algorithmically broken up into demographically similar regions of no more than 2000 people each census (10 years).
- Each district votes for their representative once a year. That representative would have significant authority over local political happenings.
- Representatives of each ~200 districts, similarly algorthmically chosen, vote for a representative in the house of representatives equivalent once every 4 years.
- House votes for the senate which remains 2 seats per state, once every 4 years.
- Senate votes for the president.
It's not entirely dissimilar to what we were initially doing. Until 1913, for instance, the public did not vote for senators. They were state representatives, not the public's representatives. And similarly, prior to 1910, we would regularly expand the size of the house of representatives as the population increased. Now it's been frozen in time for more than a century. When you "represent" 700k people, you no longer really represent anybody.
Ultimately though this is just mental masturbation. We're going to let our democracy run its course until it collapses, which may be much closer than many expect. And what will emerge from the ashes is something we can only speculate on. But one thing I'm certain of is that the multibillion dollar multinational corporations already puppeting our government see themselves as becoming the "saviors" (which we may treat as a euphemism for rulers) of our brave new society. This is something the World Economic Forum (an organization comprised of most of the world's largest corporations) is already being increasingly open about. [youtube.com] Think about how many eyeballs were involved in the creation, production, editing and final publication of that video. And they all said, 'Yeah, I think this is the sort of message we want to share.'
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 01 2021, @01:47AM
Eeeee-yup. I realize even if I do get to Canada it's not guaranteed to be survivable, but that's why I'm aiming for Halifax, since it's out of the way enough to support itself independently if it really has to. We're living in awful times.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 31 2020, @03:34AM
"it's grossly overrated."
No it isn't, study some history.