Mistakes have been made, and mistakes will be made again. Those unfamiliar with the history of the situation may end up going through the same thought processes and making the same mistakes as the previous generations.
This presents both problems and opportunities for security; it means that project managers and developers will need to keep a close eye on the development process to avoid making these known mistakes, and it also means that penetration testers and other red-team members have (provided they research the development history of their target) a list of potential avenues for exploit.
Through being aware of the historical avenues of attack and the bugs exploited in the past,
Eric Rand