Remember Dan Geer-Dr. Dan Geer to you-who was fired from security firm @stake in late September for sounding off against Microsoft as a "national security threat" in the report "CyberSecurity: The Cost of Monopoly"? Well, Geer is back in action as the chief scientist for Verdasys, a security start-up that makes a product called Digital Guardian. And he vows to continue to be as outspoken as he has been in the past, come hell or high water.

Geer's previous employer, @stake, has declined to discuss the particulars about how Geer suddenly departed his post as chief technical officer the very week the Microsoft-bashing report he authored appeared under the sponsorship of the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

Whether you agree with the conclusions of that report or not, it can certainly be counted as one of the better-argued essays on the dangers of software monoculture and the possibility of security becoming the means for vendor product lock-in. However, @stake, which counts Microsoft as a client customer, apparently didn't find it amusing. Geer "went missing" from his job the week the report was published, with @stake only willing to say it was all a private personnel matter.

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