Week 8 Discussion

In the first outside reading topic this week you read several articles about the use of zero-day exploits by the NSA, and more generally, the U.S. Government. You saw that there is an inherent conflict – zero day vulnerabilities need to be kept secret if the government is going to successfully exploit them, but the manufacturers need to know about the vulnerabilities so that they can create patches to help protect the government and the private sector from others who may exploit those vulnerabilities.

So that's the question for you: Should the government be required to notify manufacturers of all zero-day vulnerabilities?

Your answer needs to acknowledge the conflict and why you would resolve it in the way that you do. Note that this does not have to be a yes/no question, your answer could try to find a middle ground.

The reading in the attachment.

The answer should be not more than 100 words.