> It sounds like you want to hold software companies liable when their products get hacked.
If the hack is directly related to the quality of the product then yes, by all means. And they could (try to) take out some kind of professional insurance against this.
> If a terrorist blows up a bridge, should the bridge builder be sued?
No, but if a manufacturer of a vault leaves a backdoor in their vault then they should be liable (and they most likely are).
Now this is where the analogy breaks down somewhat, in the 'real' world the lock manufacturer is not liable for the damage due to a break-in, but the presence of a high quality lock will reduce your insurance premiums (at least, they do where I live).
So that's how shop owners deal with this, they take out insurance and the insurance company will try to make a stab at how big the risk is that you're going to be the subject of unwanted attention and price their premium accordingly. Any measures you take to make sure that you are not going to burglarized will be taken into account.
Contrast that with a terrorist blowing up your house, the chances are spectacularly small (vanishingly small even) so besides that not being an interesting risk to insure against you likely will not be worried about it either.
On the other hand if your bridge builder will attempt to sell you an explosion resistant bridge then it had better be that (in practice this will simply depend on the size of the explosion and no bridge manufacturer will say that that is acceptable use of their bridge and likely if you sued them the judge would side with them unless they made specific claims about such suitability).
If the hack is directly related to the quality of the product then yes, by all means. And they could (try to) take out some kind of professional insurance against this.
> Is that really how other industries work?
Yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warranty#Defects_In_Materials_...
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/professional-li...
http://www.me.utexas.edu/~srdesign/paper/
> If a terrorist blows up a bridge, should the bridge builder be sued?
No, but if a manufacturer of a vault leaves a backdoor in their vault then they should be liable (and they most likely are).
Now this is where the analogy breaks down somewhat, in the 'real' world the lock manufacturer is not liable for the damage due to a break-in, but the presence of a high quality lock will reduce your insurance premiums (at least, they do where I live).
So that's how shop owners deal with this, they take out insurance and the insurance company will try to make a stab at how big the risk is that you're going to be the subject of unwanted attention and price their premium accordingly. Any measures you take to make sure that you are not going to burglarized will be taken into account.
Contrast that with a terrorist blowing up your house, the chances are spectacularly small (vanishingly small even) so besides that not being an interesting risk to insure against you likely will not be worried about it either.
On the other hand if your bridge builder will attempt to sell you an explosion resistant bridge then it had better be that (in practice this will simply depend on the size of the explosion and no bridge manufacturer will say that that is acceptable use of their bridge and likely if you sued them the judge would side with them unless they made specific claims about such suitability).