The internet security guru created quite a flap with his white paper CyberInsecurity: The Cost of Monopoly, which argued that the dominance of Microsoft's software in the computer world threatens our electronic existence.

The fact Geer got fired from his job at security company @Stake following his publishing the paper late last year plucked the "monoculture" argument out of academic oblivion and into the mainstream. Microsoft, it seems, was a major client of @Stake's, leading to speculation that Geer was culled by an employer wanting to stay on the software behemoth's right side.

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