A group of security experts, government agencies and IT companies has agreed a list of 25 mistakes in software that lead to security melt-downs.

The group, which included the SANS Institute and MITRE, with backing from the National Security Agency, Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle, has suggested that it be made illegal to sell code with these basic errors.

These errors are so common that they have been the bread and butter of virus writers for the last three decades. They include buffer overflows, webssite design problems that allow hidden code on pages to invisibly redirect you to a malicious site, bad encryption that can lead to the loss of critical data and calculation errors.

The group feels that the key to getting rid of these 25 errors from code is to have some sort of certification process.  Software makers would have to prove that their software does not have any of these 25 before they would be allowed to sell it.

Buyers, particularly government departments, might also not be allowed to buy software that did not meet such certification. X