Microsoft critic thrown out of job

CIOL Bureau & Reuters

BANGALORE: A technology executive whose company does business with Microsoft Corp. has been forced out of his job after he helped write a cybersecurity report critical of the software giant, as reported by the Washington Post.

Daniel R. Geer Jr was the CTO of @Stake, a computer security company which is said to have close business links with Microsoft. Earlier this week, computer security experts including Geer issued a joint report saying that the ubiquitous reach of Microsoft software on desktops worldwide has made computer networks a national security risk susceptible to "massive, cascading failures."

The report, unveiled at the Computer & Communications Industry Association's meeting of industry leaders and government officials in Washington, D.C., saying that Microsoft is now the number one target for malicious computer virus writers. The report's authors told CCIA -- which is funded by Microsoft rivals -- that the software's complexity has made it particularly vulnerable.

"The nature of the platform that dominates every desktop everywhere is such that its dominance, coupled with its insecurity, cannot be ignored and is a matter of corporate and national policy," said Dan Geer.

Geer, along with other well-known computer security experts Rebecca Bace, Peter Gutmann, Perry Metzger, Charles Pfleeger, John Quarterman, and Bruce Schneier, said they issued their report to raise awareness of the risk to national security by using a single, wide-spread software system.