Hopefully you don't mean to imply that just because something has been around for more than 20 years (much more in this case) that it is inherently insecure.

Conversely, you hopefully don't mean to imply that technology that is newer is much more likely to be secure.

I am not making a judgment call one way or the other as to your intentions. I just think it is important to the discussion.

It seems easy to me, in modern cultures, to think that newer always equals better/faster/bigger/smarter and in all other ways superior. I think this is exacerbated by the fact that modern technology has made so many things possible that most people 200 years ago would never have dreamed of. From automobiles to computers to smartphones, the technology of today is very impressive. Because all of those things are "modern" it is easy to develop the mindset that anything over a certain age is likely to be inferior. However, we need to remember that all of those technologies were built upon things learned by people in the past. Also, often newer technologies make things cheaper, but manufacturers often chose to make those with poorer materials, and thus they don't last as long. In some cases, newer isn't better. Right now I'm wearing a sweatshirt that is over 20 years old. It was a high-quality product to begin with (and I recognized that when I bought it), and it has been worn very frequently. The silk-screened logo on it is still intact, and looks very good. The material has a few small tears here and there from abuse, but overall the shirt has held together very well. A lot of the clothing I've purchased recently (in the same cost-adjusted price range) has turned out to be junk that doesn't last. There are probably better examples of newer != better, so do what you will with that one.

There is also an inverse mindset which is equally as bad. That is the idea that anything older is bound to be better. Not surprisingly, the first mindset is often held by younger people, and the second by older people. As people get older, they often fall into thinking the "old school" way is always better. The important thing to realize is that, yeah, sometimes the old way is better (and probably more often than many young people realize). However, it is equally bad to assume that just because an item or an idea is older that it is better. I certainly don't want to get out of my car and turn the engine over by hand to get it started, and I'm glad I don't have to hitch up the horses to go into town (though, admittedly a lot of things about having horses would be cool).

The long and the short of it is this, we should evaluate thing on the basis of their own merit, not on their age. There are new treasures and old treasures, new junk and old junk. I realize that this is probably just common sense, but even so I still think it is worth talking about.

... I'd like to again point out that I'm not saying that Kiro was implying a direct newer=better/older=worse relationship -- I just wondered if he might be.

Oh, and yes, if you "haven't seen a merchant where you swipe in ages", then it is very unlikely that you live in the U. S. (at least, not in any part of it that I've been to recently).