Sun Microsystems founder calls for industry-wide security standards

Security concerns call for industry-wide standards, Sun Microsystems' founder Scott McNealy has told the BCS.

Common IT industry standards are increasingly likely as privacy and security concerns increase, said McNealy in an interview with the British Computer Society (BCS) published this week.

In this month's BCS member journal ITnow, McNealy said, "It was a little hard to do in the old days when there were literally hundreds of different computer languages and interfaces, but with a lot more consolidation and standardisation I think you can start to look for certification.

"I would encourage the BCS to focus on common standards and understanding in the areas of privacy and security."

McNealy said, "People want to feel safe and comfortable that a technician is not going to compromise their privacy that they are going to maintain the levels of security in the systems that they work on."

McNealy also said that, contrary to popular opinion, there are enough high-profile industry role models in the history of computing to inspire youngsters into a career in IT.

However, the next generation of IT "stars" were likely to come from outside the UK and the US, he predicted.