Gates Touts Security Plan

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates has reached out to his company's customers in an e-mail message that details Microsoft's focus on security.

In his Wednesday message, Gates calls computer security "as big and important a challenge as any our industry has ever tackled," and says Microsoft is making "significant progress on the security front."

Security Priorities

The mammoth, 3500-word e-mail, titled "A Microsoft Progress Report: Security," went to customers who had subscribed to receive executive e-mail. In it, Gates presents a laundry list of Microsoft's security initiatives.

The message points out a handful of developments as evidence of progress on the security front. Gates cites security features in the forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, the company's recent Caller ID antispam architecture, better Windows support for strong authentication and public key infrastructure (PKI) technology, and improved software coding practices at Microsoft.

Microsoft is dedicating a "major portion" of its research and development investments to security, and is looking at various technologies to protect businesses and consumers and to thwart outbreaks of viruses and worms, the e-mail message says.

For corporations, Gates says, Microsoft is researching technology to inspect remote devices such as home computers that try to connect to corporate networks, denying access to the network to machines that don't pass a health inspection.

Microsoft is also developing active protection technologies that adjust a computer's defenses based on changes in its "state" or block behaviors that might be caused by a virus or by a malicious hacker, the message says.

Security features in the company's Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 will help protect software applications and will strengthen virtual private network (VPN) connections with better content inspection for network traffic and network security policy management features.

Already in the Works

Gates also promised better education for computer users around the world. Beginning in April, the company will host 21 security summits in cities across the United States to train information technology professionals and developers.

For consumers, Microsoft is building a Security Center into the Windows XP Control Panel to consolidate information about security features. The company is also adding a new software update service called Microsoft Update that will cover Microsoft products beyond Windows and will work with ISPs and antivirus companies to educate computer users about proper PC "hygiene," the report says.

Gates has often used e-mail messages to Microsoft employees to signal important shifts in Microsoft's strategy. For example, his now famous "Trustworthy Computing" e-mail from January 2002 set security as the top priority for the company.

Unlike those messages, in which Gates rallies his company's employees around a single idea, the latest missive resembles a technology white paper. It mostly rehashes recent security announcements and position statements, including Gates' earlier comments at the recent RSA Security Conference in San Francisco.