Dan Geer was fired from his job as chief technology officer at @stake Inc. on Sept. 25, one day after he and six other security researchers released a report that criticized Microsoft Corp.'s dominance of the software industry as a fundamental cause of IT security problems.

The report was published by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a Washington-based trade group that includes some of Microsoft's top rivals. @stake, a Cambridge, Mass.-vendor of security software and consulting services, gets a significant portion of its revenue from Microsoft. Geer last week spoke to Computerworld about his firing and the controversy surrounding the report.

What happened on Sept. 25? I'm still cautioned by my attorney not to be too precise about anything. But I learned I was fired from a press release. When I did eventually speak to the CEO [James Mobley of @stake], it was cold and short, and he had nothing to say but, "Your services are no longer required." And there was and has been nothing else beyond that.

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