WASHINGTON—Today, NetChoice announced major updates toMicrosoftVulnerabilityTracker.com, adding new real-time trackers to clearly show the escalating costs and risks of the federal government’s overreliance on a few dominant providers for its IT software. This comes ahead of the RSA Conference in San Francisco next week, where thousands of cybersecurity professionals, researchers and tech companies will meet on solutions for protecting against digital threats.
Additionally, the findings compliment President Donald Trump’s new Cyber Strategy for America, which elevates secure, modernized infrastructure to a national priority and prompts review of the current federal procurement system.
“The Trump administration’s new cyber strategy should underscore how much the practice of vendor lock in government IT procurement costs our nation’s taxpayers and national security,” said Patrick Hedger, NetChoice Director of Policy. “Our update makes clear why Congress must urgently reform software procurement to align with this strategy and reduce dependency on a small number of underperforming vendors.”
The updated tracker now features three new counters, showing on average:
- Patching Microsoft vulnerabilities cost the U.S. government as much as $50 million a year, which is the equivalent of:
- VA benefits for 23,745 veterans for a year
- Enhanced FBI background checks for a year
- Salaries for 756 Border Patrol agents for a year
- Salaries for 346 air traffic controllers for a year
- SNAP benefits for 22,257 people for a year or 8,012,820 people for a day
- WIC program benefits for 68,306 people for a year
- Head Start participation for 4,815 children for a year
- Disaster relief for 14,509 households
- The Childhood Cancer Data Initiative for a year
- Farm subsidies for 1,786 farms for a year
- Microsoft reporting one new vulnerability every 6.5 hours
- Federal agencies reporting one new cybersecurity incident every 17 minutes
It builds on NetChoice’s recent research, including the report “Defeating Vendor Lock-in and Gaining Buying Power: Why the U.S. Government Must Consolidate Expertise to Fix its Broken Software Procurement System” by procurement lawyer and software industry expert Michael Garland. The report finds that entrenched vendors cost taxpayers billions annually through inflated contracts and weak competition, estimating potential annual savings of at least $3 billion if procurement reforms were enacted.
“The combination of our new vulnerability tracker features and Garland’s report shows that the government’s outdated procurement system is in direct conflict with the goals of the Trump administration’s cyber strategy,” Hedger continued. “We aren’t just wasting taxpayer dollars but actively undermining the national security objectives the administration has set out to achieve.”
NetChoice urges lawmakers to consider reforms like Garland’s proposed Software Accountability, Value, and Efficiency (SAVE) initiative, which would consolidate expertise, require interoperability and restore competition in federal procurement.
Visit the updated tracker at MicrosoftVulnerabilityTracker.com. Read Garland’s full report here.
Please contact press@netchoice.org with inquiries.
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