Mr. O'Dell also said the company was working to address computer security problems and build voter confidence in its wares.
He blamed compatibility issues that have led to criticism of the program on the company's decision to focus on computer security problems.
In the document - a review of the US's computer security problems, carried out over the past 60 days - Hathaway broadly recommends more cooperation and education, and maintaining the US's technological lead.
Despite some progress in the last year, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the I.R.S. still frequently gave improper refunds, was sluggish in correcting errors against taxpayers, was vulnerable to computer security problems and could not assure that its property or budget was being properly tracked.
The US National Science Foundation NSFF) plans to set up a research programme for long-term solutions to computer security problems.
This kind of disclosure complete with a software release that could potentially be misused is not unusual for Black Hat, a gathering where IT security pros talk frankly about the latest in computer security problems and how to solve them.
He says the skills he gleaned from his days in the cyberunderground have helped him to understand programming errors that he claims cause a third of all computer security problems.
Responding to a rash of computer security problems earlier this year, which included the North Korean cyberattack on Sony Pictures, President Obama in April ordered sanctions on hackers who destroy or pilfer data from computer networks used by the U.S. government and American businesses.
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Dan Kaminsky, a prominent computer security researcher, said, "The problem is that it's hard to get someone to care".
