Three of the IT industry's top CEOs have claimed that security is a manageable problem, despite lingering problems, including the obstacles posed by Web services.

In talks at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo conference in Orlando last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Intel CEO Craig Barrett, and HP CEO Carly Fiorina addressed what they claim is now the industry's top priority.

"It's still not good enough, but we have made dramatic strides. I know we need to do better," Ballmer said.

Ballmer pointed to the improvements Microsoft has made between Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 as an example.

In the first 150 days after Windows 2000 was released, Ballmer said that CERN, the European organization for nuclear research, found 17 critical vulnerabilities. In the first 150 days of Windows 2003, 4 critical vulnerabilities were discovered.

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