Security vendor @stake Inc. has dissociated itself from a report critical of Microsoft Corp.’s OS dominance, and says that the report’s instigator, former @stake Chief Technical Officer 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 OS 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 Microsystems Inc., America Online Inc., and Oracle Corp.
@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.”