By far the most intriguing prospect at this year's RSA Conference in London is a press conference scheduled for 23 October, at which global technology providers are due to launch a "major industry effort to improve software security".

Although details of this announcement are a closely guarded secret, it seems to chime with the recommendations made by the House of Lords Science and Technology committee in its recent report on internet security.

Ultimately, the Lords called for vendors to be held liable for vulnerabilities in their products that could lead to security breaches. It would make a refreshing change to see the technology industry proactively addressing the issue to stave off the prospect of legislation. But whatever this new industry security effort turns out to be, the intention should be to provide a real, practical framework for software architects to work within to ensure the quality of their products.

The formation of yet another high-level strategic industry body would do little to rectify the problem of flawed products.