28 June 2007, 09:06

Microsoft security grunt makes "worst jobs in science" list

Every year Popular Science compiles a list that salutes the men and women in science who do not earn nearly enough money for doing their job. This year the employees at Microsoft's Security Response Centre ranked as the sixth worst job behind hazmat divers, oceanographers, elephant vasectomists, garbologists and carcass preparers as one of the magazine's "Worst Jobs in Science 2007." The other "Worst Jobs in Science 2007" are gravity research subject, Olympic drug tester, forensic entomologist, and whale feces researcher.

The magazine felt the Microsoft employees deserved the honour, since they receive approximately 100,000 messages a year reporting that something in the Microsoft empire may have gone terribly wrong. The work of fixing kinks in Windows, Internet Explorer or Office is tedious, because each product has multiple versions in multiple languages. Plus, hackers love targeting Microsoft. According to the SANS Institute, Microsoft products are among the top five targets of online attack. Popular Science equated working in the Microsoft Security Response Centre to wearing a big sign that reads "Hack Me."

(mba)

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