Kingsley Idehen's Blog Data Space

By Tom Krazit, InfoWorld

The sheer number of worms and viruses directed at Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser have many in the computer industry wondering whether we would all be more secure if more users relied on alternatives to Microsoft's products. Most experts in attendance at the Usenix 2004 conference commented that they would prefer a diverse group of operating system and Web browser software. A monoculture, whether it be in biological terms or in computing terms, has been shown to be inherently dangerous to members of that group, said Dan Geer, currently the chief scientist at Verdasys Inc. Geer was formerly chief technical officer at security company @stake Inc. until he was fired last year for authoring a report critical of Microsoft's dominance of the computing industry and the insecurity of its products that stems from that position; Microsoft is an @stake client. Geer called the vulnerabilities in Microsoft's products "a national-security issue," claiming the issue is far too important to the health of the Internet to leave up to the software vendors themselves.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/01/HNsecuritydebate_1.html