Breaking Windows for better security
Published: 21 Jun 2005 12:55 BST
The random chatter of several hundred Microsoft engineers filled the cavernous executive briefing centre recently at the company's sprawling campus outside Seattle.
Within minutes after their meeting was convened, however, the hall became hushed. Hackers had successfully lured a Windows laptop onto a malicious wireless network.
"It was just silent," said Stephen Toulouse, a program manager in Microsoft's security unit. "You couldn't hear anybody breathe."
The demo was part of an extraordinary two days in which outsiders were invited into the heart of the Windows empire for the express purpose of exploiting flaws in Microsoft computing systems. The event, which Microsoft has not publicised, was dubbed "Blue Hat" — a reference to the widely known "Black Hat" security conference, tweaked to reflect Microsoft's corporate color.
The unusual March gathering, a summit of sorts between delegates of the hacking community and their primary corporate target, illustrates how important security has become to the world's most powerful software company. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates himself estimated earlier this year that the company now spends $2bn (£1bn) a year — more than a third of its research budget — on security-related issues. Security has also become one of the main themes of the company's developer conferences, including last week's TechEd event, where Microsoft pitched security improvements in Windows to 11,000 attendees.
Blue Hat was significant for other, less tangible reasons as well. It provided a rare glimpse inside the netherworld of computer security, where the ethical lines are sometimes fuzzy in the technological arms race between network engineers and the hackers who challenge them. During the course of the event, each side witnessed for the first time the inner workings, culture and psychology of the other.
"I didn't know if we were going to end up with this massively adversarial experience or if this was going to be something of a collaborative mode between all of us," said Dan Kaminsky, one of the outsiders who presented at the conference. Like others in the hacker group — many of whom are known as "security researchers" in their professions — he noted that the relationship ended up being the collaborative sort.
Still, in such a charged atmosphere, it didn't take long for emotions to show.
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