Trustworthy Computing: Two years on
Published: 16 Jan 2004 10:40 GMT
Four pillars of trust
Security is only one of the four pieces of the Trustworthy Computing initiative, but it's arguably the most visible. Microsoft's efforts in the three other areas -- privacy, reliability and business integrity -- haven't been as evident or controversial as its moves in the security world. Computer worms such as MSBlast and Microsoft SQL Slammer spotlight the company's failings in the high-wattage glow of Internet meltdowns.
While Slammer affected a product that had been developed prior to the Trustworthy Computing push, MSBlast -- also called Blaster -- exploited errors missed by the Microsoft reviews.
"Blaster is certainly an indictment, to some extent," said Stephen O'Grady, an analyst at research firm Red Monk. "If I was working for (the Trustworthy Computing group), that is something that would keep me up at night."
Such incidents, Microsoft executives admitted, have resulted in businesses holding off buying new products and, instead, patching their existing infrastructure. Initial signs of that sort of backlash prompted Gates to launch the initiative.
"Today, in the developed world, we do not worry about electricity and water services being available," Gates wrote in the memo sent to Microsoft employees and customers two years ago. "With telephony, we rely both on its availability and its security for conducting highly confidential business transactions without worrying that information about who we call or what we say will be compromised. Computing falls well short of this."
In the past year, Microsoft has released three products -- Windows Server 2003, Windows Office 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 -- that have benefited from renewed focus on security. Other products now in development, such as a planned update to Microsoft's SQL Server database, code-named Yukon, are being constantly reviewed as they are built to make sure that security is up to snuff.
However, with many older -- and less secure -- versions of Windows and other Microsoft products still on the market, the software giant has also had to focus on helping customers reduce their risk.
The company has released tools to help information technology professionals lock down their networks and has published extensive white papers that detail how its employees can secure its own computers. In addition, it has attempted to educate consumers through its "Protect Your PC" campaign and has urged them to turn on the basic firewall protection available with Windows XP and to regularly update operating systems and antivirus definitions.
"There is an order of magnitude -- more people using Automatic Update and downloading patches," Microsoft's Kean said.
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