America Has a Recall System for Hacked Software — But It Only Applies to the Government
The federal government just ordered its own agencies to patch two software flaws that criminals are actively exploiting right now — one in Microsoft SharePoint, the collaboration platform used across corporate America, and one in Check Point SmartConsole, the very tool administrators use to manage their firewalls. Here's the catch: that order is legally binding for federal agencies only. Every private company running the same software just got the same warning — and no obligation to act on it.
Bottom Line
THE BOTTOM LINE: Two actively exploited flaws in widely deployed enterprise software would be a routine story, except one of them targets the tool that manages security itself, and the whole episode highlights a gap Americans rarely think about — the US has a functioning recall system for dangerous software, and most of the economy isn't required to follow it. The organizations that treat KEV deadlines as mandatory tend to stay out of breach headlines; the ones that don't tend to end up in them.