Company disowns author of critical Microsoft report

Security vendor @stake has dissociated itself from a report critical of Microsoft's operating system dominance, and says that the report's instigator, former @stake CTO Dan Geer has left the company abruptly.

Geer and several other researchers wrote a report which argued that Microsoft's dominance of the desktop and server operating system markets posed an inherent danger to security. The report was sponsored by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).

"@stake would like to clarify that Dan Geer is no longer associated with the company as of Sept. 23, 2003," @stake said in a statement Thursday. "The values and opinions of the report are not in line with @stake's views."

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Security vendor @stake has dissociated itself from a report critical of Microsoft's operating system dominance, and says that the report's instigator, former @stake CTO Dan Geer has left the company abruptly.

Geer and several other researchers wrote a report which argued that Microsoft's dominance of the desktop and server operating system markets posed an inherent danger to security. The report was sponsored by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).

"@stake would like to clarify that Dan Geer is no longer associated with the company as of Sept. 23, 2003," @stake said in a statement Thursday. "The values and opinions of the report are not in line with @stake's views."

Microsoft is a customer of @stake, according to @stake's Web site. CCIA's members include firms which often compete with Microsoft, such as Sun, AOL and Oracle.

@stake did not clarify under what circumstances Geer had left the company. @stake said in its statement that "Although Dr. Geer announced that his CCIA-sponsored report titled, CyberInsecurity: The Cost of Monopoly was an independent research study, participation in and release of the report was not sanctioned by @stake."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.