The Microsoft protection racket

MICROSOFT HAVE A PRETTY POOR track record with regards to their operating system and application security - in some cases acknowledging and resolving serious flaws, many weeks after they have been brought to the public eye. While system administrators the world over have been waiting patiently for news from Redmond of new initiatives to safeguard their £100,000s of licenses, good old M$ have been cooking up something slightly different.

At this weeks RSA Conference, Microsoft CTO, Craig Mundie said that the company “may offer new security abilities on a paid basis”, a move which could further raise the total cost of ownership (TCO) to deploy their systems in a commercial environment, and for some may even catalyse the move to cheaper or open-source solutions from other vendors.

When challenged as to why Microsoft have chosen to make such a decision, Mundie replied “because customers wouldn't pay for it recently”.

Since Mundie's statement on Tuesday, further clarification has been made by none other than Steve Ballmer. Ballmer states that Microsoft has created a group who are tasked with “developing dedicated security products”, applications which could be branded and licensed individually from their operating systems.