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Thursday, September 25, 2003
Daniel Geer, a veteran security expert and the CTO of @Stake, was apparently fired from his job today. Unfortunately Mr. Geer had the temerity to take part, under his own name, in writing a report that stated that our country's too great reliance on a single operating system, Windows, posed a national security risk. His company, which consults for Microsoft, has denied Microsoft pressured the company to take this personnel action. Uh huh. In Forbes a fellow author sizes up the situation: Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer of network security services firm Counterpane Internet Security and a co-author of the report, said the situation illustrates the power Microsoft has to silence critics.
He said, "I was really surprised how many researchers said they could never be on the record as saying that. We saw this during (Microsoft's) anti-trust trial. Many companies that privately talked about Microsoft's strong-arm tactics wouldn't dare get on the witness stand and say it for fear of reprisal." The document that got him in trouble is here.
posted by jeev |
7:49 PM |
 
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