Cyberinsecurity

During my vacation I read a report by the Computer & Communications Industry Association, titled CyberInsecurity - The Cost of Monopoly: How the Dominance of Microsoft's Products Pose a Risk to Security. 
I don't recommend that everyone read this as it's rather dull reading. However, what is interesting I will outline below.

First, let me start by noting that this a report compiled from reports by "leading authorities in the field of cybersecurity." So, it's not just the ranting of some anti-Microsoft blogger.

The report is rather damning of Microsoft software. However! The overall problem is not so much that Microsoft's software is poorly designed, riddles with flaws, overly complex, etc., but that it is too ubiquitous. By making itself a monopoly, Microsoft has undermined itself. 

As the report concludes, "These comments are specific to Microsoft, but would apply to any entity with similar dominance under current circumstances. Indeed, similar moments of truth have occurred, though for different reasons, with IBM or AT&T. The focus on Microsoft is simply that the clear and present danger can be ignored no longer."

An interesting experiment would be a call for all Windows machines throughout the world to be shut down just for an hour (although a month would be great!) in order to see just how clean and open the World Wide Web (WWW) and Internet traffic would become. 

The report can be downloaded at:
http://www.ccianet.org/papers/cyberinsecurity.pdf.