At a news conference in Sydney, Microsoft's chairman said computer systems must become more secure and must be at least as reliable as essential physical infrastructure like electricity and water systems. "That absolutely has to be done," he said.

The main solution to the problem, Gates said, is to isolate people who are trying to send out malicious code.

"The Internet in a way says: Hey, these systems are connected," Gates said. "It’s not like the mainframe, (which) was kept secure not because the code was secure but rather because only the people there in that glasshouse were actually connecting software up to it. Here, we need to build the firewalls.”

By Lisa Simmons at News.com

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