Microsoft security is "great"

NEWS Microsoft's web services platform .NET has been given the thumbs up from IT security testers Foundstone. Microsoft asked the firm, alongside fellow security company Core Technologies, to spend a year auditing its web-services software after fears expressed in many quarters that Microsoft is not up to the job. In a white paper issued yesterday Foundstone concluded the technology is a "great platform for web applications" from a security perspective. The report will go some way to addressing the widespread concerns from the security lobby that .NET has inherent problems. They point to the aggregation of large amounts of customer data in one area, a single sign-on entry point, and Microsoft's questionable record on systems security as potential flaws in the scheme. Foundstone cites a number of advantages of the .NET platform, such as tight security control over applications and resources, as significant improvements over current offerings.