Microsoft security efforts know no bounds

SO I SAT DOWN for a glass of water with a couple of Voles last week. These were security experts on a world tour to tell the press all about Microsoft's Forefront security - some software designed, they said, to make it easier for businesses to manage their IT security needs.

I'd tell you all about it but since we've banned the words "solutions" and "issues" from our pages, there aren't many left.

Still, the friendly fellows talked me through the product that has been released to manufacturing and is set for launch on July 1st. It's got a little console thingy that allows network administrators to set security parameters across the network and monitor any breaches that may occur. Security, they said was their customers' number one concern.

"So what's the worst that can happen?" I asked. They looked a bit confused.

"I mean, have you an example of what can happen when network security is breached." There was a bit of buttock shifting and hand-wringing and that but, no, we appeared a bit short of examples. Ultimately, it seemed to boil down to "user productivity and performance issues." Oh.

The discussion rumbled on for a while until a few minutes later, Matt was struck with an example, "There was that one in Japan," he suddenly ejaculated. Josue again looked a bit confused.

Matt's enthusiasm bubbled over and finally Josue remembered some story about some security breach that happened somwhere in Japan at some time. So startling was his tale that we can't remember the details and failed to write them down. Still, Microsoft taped the whole thing so there should be a record somewhere.

"So what do you do about catching malware writers?" we asked.

"Eh?"

"Well, malware writers, virus authors. Do you go after them?"

Now the buttocks were really shifting. "Listen, I write stories all day every day and on a daily basis we see stories from security software companies warning about the latest threat or the newest hole. I've not yet seen a story about someone being arrested or convicted for writing malware.

"Um." (This is from memory, perhaps I should get a copy of the tape).

"There was a virus-writer arrested once," Matt finally piped up.

"Ok, so there was one arrested once. Fantastic."

"Listen, I have someone who can talk you through this sort of thing," says Matt (roughly). He nods to the blonde PR opposite, noting that there seemed to be a growing list of things they needed to get back to me about.

Yes. There was. And there still is. µ