Bissell wasn't as blunt as our headline suggests but it was close. Speaking at a conference in Canada recently, he said "Ninety-eight per cent of attacks are elementary" and that they result from unpatched software, a lack of password security, a complete absence of identity management and a failure to properly apply access privileges.

“Those things are happening every day. I think why we’re getting more [successful] attacks is because this is one of the industries where crime actually pays.”

But his solutions smack of salesmanship. For example:

1. how many devices around the world are remain unpatched not because the user doesn't want to patch them but because they have been orphaned? Microsoft itself is a past master at leaving millions of users unprotected because they remain with e.g. Microsoft Windows 95, 98 or 7 because they meet their operational needs without the treadmill of "upgrades" some of which won't run on the machines they have.

2. move workloads to the cloud. There is a growing movement for companies to leave the cloud. Take a look at this : https://www.computerworld.com/article/2709336/hubspot-latest-to-leave-a… The movement is gaining momentum and it's not only Amazon that companies are leaving, reports say. But Cloud is a major part of Microsoft's business.

3. "invest in artificial intelligence to identify attacks and responses. Again, Microsoft wants its artificial intelligence products to play a much greater part than they hitherto have. While on the desktop, Windows dominates on servers the position is unclear but only in Microsoft's favour if data is carefully selected. See https://www.enterpriseappstoday.com/stats/linux-statistics.html . For the past decade, Microsoft has permitted Linux to be installed on its own cloud service. So the big question here is whether Microsoft is talking to the world or just to its own customers.

But not all of his comments were soft-selling.

"Be brilliant at the basics,” he said. Oh, wait. No, he was talking about Active Directory which is a Microsoft thing. Well, the point applies regardless of the product.

"optimise and simplify your IT architecture" - are we being too cynical to point out that much of the architecture is as recommended by Microsoft and consultancies like Accenture and Deloitte?

Bissel said "Cyber attacks aren’t successful because they are getting more sophisticated" but because the systems aren't sufficiently protected at the most basic levels. He says it's the Chief Information Security Officers' fault.

But the underlying message, the message that carries the real weight, is that the providers of software and consultants aren't doing a good enough job and they are leaving their customers exposed to risk because they constantly have to chase holes in the products and services they have sold.