ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Can Microsoft take the lead in security?

By Josh Mehlman, ZDNet Australia, 21 August, 2002 06:27

Daily Newsletters

Sign up to ZDNet UK's daily newsletter.

Topics

Microsoft, code review, TechEd, Security

NEWS
Microsoft is undergoing a major cultural shift in the way it deals with security, but it has come much later than it should have, said company executives at its TechEd conference in Brisbane. "Would I have preferred to see it happen earlier? Yes I would have," said Steve Riley, senior consultant at Microsoft Consulting Services' EC3 security practice division. "For a long time, what was important to customers was features and performance -- because our products were deployed mainly in trusted environments, where security and resiliency from attack just wasn't an issue," said Riley. He believes that as customers started to use its product in ways it hadn't envisioned, security became more of an issue. This may have been true in 1995, but Microsoft has been pitching a vision of Internet-connected applications at least since the late 90s. Yet the focus on security has come about much more recently. The outbreaks of the Code Red and Nimda worms last year were a wake-up call for the company. "Around the start of this year, I actually shut down the Windows division for two months, so we could go and code review every single line of code in Windows XP, Windows .Net Server, and also a lot of the code that exists in Windows 2000, looking for security vulnerabilities," said Brian Valentine, senior vice president of the Windows division, in a videotaped address to the conference. "In the past Microsoft would ship a product that was kind of open," said Valentine. "We had the least secure configuration when you installed it by default out of the box." The results of this code review are to be incorporated into the upcoming versions of Microsoft's server operating system -- Windows .Net Server -- due in the first half of next year. The security review will also be retroactively applied in service packs to Windows XP and Windows 2000. The company is now trying to engineer all its products for security from the ground up, even at the expense of performance or ease of deployment, said Valentine. "We've changed our engineering process so that each milestone in the product delivery cycle has security milestones built in," he said. "Now when you install a product from Microsoft like .Net Server, it will be locked down in high secure mode from the day you install it." Services such as the IIS Web server will be shut down by default, and systems administrators will have to enable them. "It is going to be harder for systems administrators, and these are the only people who are complaining about our approach," said Riley. The company's new approach is more than just posturing, according to Kevin McIsaac, programme director of server infrastructure strategies at industry analyst META Group. "It's more a natural maturing of the operating system, although it may have come five or six years too late. It's late for anything that would like to be considered a serious enterprise operating system," said McIssac. "Brian Valentine now is sounding like senior Unix guys in 1989 to 1990," he argued. "Around the time of the Morris Worm, Unix got hammered about security by the mainframe vendors; Unix was too permissive and needed to be locked down. The same thing is happening now with Windows." Taking the lead
While admitting it has fallen behind, Microsoft believes it is in a position to alter the security landscape. "Microsoft has the most operating system installations out there, so it's incumbent on Microsoft to do an orders of magnitude better job than anybody else in the industry," said Valentine. "Microsoft has to lead the industry, working with partners, standards groups, even competitors. Security shouldn't be a competitive environment; we need to make sure everything we learn... we share with partners and industry." But the question remains, can Microsoft lead the industry? "Can anyone else?", Riley retorted. "Who else in the industry is positioned to do something like this? Our financial position gives us the opportunity." "We're going to have to do a whole lot to work against some negative perceptions that have developed over time, but we'll get there." META Group's McIsaac is more sceptical. "Microsoft has a reputation for not getting it right the first two or three times. They will get it right, but it's a question of how quickly, and how much pain the industry will need to go through."
For all security-related news, including updates on the latest viruses, hacking exploits and patches, check out ZDNet UK's Security News Section. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the Security forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Related stories

Microsoft hones .Net tools for battle

Microsoft to up Exchange security

Microsoft security push cost $100m for .Net server alone

Security flaw hits Windows, Mac, Linux

Citrix to deliver Windows desktops from the cloud

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

  • Login

Will not be displayed with your comment

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

UnderINK

I agree with the previous commenter wholeheartedly. I couldn't say it better myself. This is very 'Big Brother'. And while I agree with protecting...

49 minutes ago by UnderINK on European e-identity plan to be unveiled this month
Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe

Nice to see that Turing's idea of a general purpose computer doing once-hardware-powered tasks in software is now universal ;-) Mary

6 hours ago by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe on Software with everything
Jason Burchell

seriously now. I've only bothered to read a small bit of the comments. do me and the rest of the world a favour. stop saying it does not work or...

10 hours ago by Jason Burchell via Facebook on Music industry negotiating over 24-bit downloads
Philip Charles Cohen

Read about it and weep, John Donahoe ... In addition to Visa’s V.me, there is now MasterCard’s PayPass digital wallet soon to arrive; another...

14 hours ago by Philip Charles Cohen via Facebook on PayPal takes phone-based payments to the high street
apexwm

Leslie Satenstein : Where have you ever seen Mozilla even mention this? Firefox is the most popular browser in the GNU/Linux OS, so I don't see...

15 hours ago by apexwm on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux
songmaster

SHleG: Do you remember building a clockwork scorpion kit (I'm pretty sure I have a photo of it somewhere) — I think it was called something like...

17 hours ago by songmaster on Software with everything
Chris Wortman

Good I love Yahoo! Their search engine is getting better than Google as of late. I find more of what I want on the first page, and usually within...

17 hours ago by Chris Wortman via Facebook on Linux Mint 13 ramps up for KDE release
PatrickG

openhgs has made the point for Windows 8 multiple monitors without realising it! With Windows 7 you have to switch the mouse and so your focus...

19 hours ago by PatrickG on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake
Leslie Satenstein

Mozilla has threatened to stop supporting Linux. I guess that UBUNTU is going with another browser. I indicated that if Mozilla stops supporting...

20 hours ago by Leslie Satenstein via Facebook on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux
Andy Bolstridge

Much as I abhor Microsoft's licensing practices, this is almost certainly down to purchasing IT equipment via 3rd party consultants - you get the...

21 hours ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT
Jack Schofield

@openhgs Windows users have had multiple desktops since Linus started writing Linux. They just haven't shipped as standard because not enough...

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake
Jack Schofield

@Phil at Cloud4 What, Microsoft gets £1,200 per PC and £1,622 per server? Gosh, I'm amazed....

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT
craigsc

You guys have no idea what is going on at Autonomy. Autonomy could have been a much more profitable organization. The sales operations at Autonomy...

2 days ago by craigsc on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves
Moley

How does this impact on dual or multi booting? Seems to me to more or less prohibit this, from Windows 8 anyway. Will Grub 2 recognise Windows 8,...

2 days ago by Moley on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround
apexwm

I don't understand why there cannot be a slight pause during the boot process so the user can press a key. Many operating systems do this, even if...

2 days ago by apexwm on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround
Gavin Goodman

You can now buy the Xi3 modular computer in the UK at http://www.ocdistribution.com . This can be bought with the Tand3m software, pricing and...

2 days ago by Gavin Goodman on CES 2012: Xi3 microSERV3R
Phil at Cloud4

I agree: Mike Lynch can clearly build a business and manage strategy. I suspect the exit of Mike is more likely the end of a planned handover...

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves
Phil at Cloud4

This is unbeleivable government wastage with only one winner... Microsoft 1 - Tax payer Nil!

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT
Mispam

So what do you do when you can't boot into windows? Why can't I just hold Shift while I power up instead of having to boot into windows and click a...

2 days ago by Mispam on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround
apexwm

I've also seen that Mac OS X for Intel machines is supposed to run in VirtualBox, which would also be a nice solution. I've never tried it though.

2 days ago by apexwm on xTreme Triple Booting: Linux, Mac & Windows

Latest in IT Strategy

Citrix to deliver Windows desktops from the cloud

Featured white papers

Email archiving: Should you choose SaaS?

Proofpoint

Email archiving: Should you choose SaaS?

This Proofpoint white paper looks at how using software-as-a-service offerings can be beneficial -- or not -- for archived... Read more

Six ways to make cloud work

Phoenix

Six ways to make cloud work

How can your business be sure that the cloud will give you the security and resilience your business needs? This six-point plan offers advice for growing... Read more

Using hybrid security to manage web threats

Blue Coat Systems

Using hybrid security to manage web threats

Should large organisations opt for on-premise security gateways or simply offload web threat management to the... Read more

Inside ZDNet UK

Indoor navigation coming to a mobile near you soon

Indoor navigation coming to a mobile near you soon

Software with everything

Software with everything

Asus Transformer Pad TF300T

Asus Transformer Pad TF300T

How IT is ganging up on organised cybercrime

How IT is ganging up on organised cybercrime

HTC One V: First take

HTC One V: First take

SharePoint deployment: The final chapter

SharePoint deployment: The final chapter

Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls

Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls