NEWS Microsoft has admitted responsibility for some of the worst virus outbreaks - such as Slammer - but added a mighty caveat, saying its blame is nothing compared to that of the "criminal" who writes the virus in the first place.
Speaking at the Microsoft's IT Forum event in Copenhagen, Scott Charney, chief strategist for Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative, said when a virus hits, the finger of blame "should always be pointed at the criminal".
But he did concede there have been occasions when some blame aimed at Microsoft has been justified.
Slammer exploited a vulnerability for which Microsoft had issued a patch several months before but had not issued an installer pack for.
"People said 'It should have been easier'. That's fair criticism," Charney added.
While the Trustworthy Computing initiative was created to shore up Microsoft's battered reputation on security, the move didn't win favour with everyone back at headquarters.
Charney said: "Microsoft, historically, has been decentralised. As far as improving process, it was warmly received, but there was concern from people on day one... people [worried] 'What happened to our freedom?' It wasn't popular with everyone."
So, if Microsoft's own staff had doubts, it's little wonder the reception in the marketplace has been at times frosty.
Charney said: "If you say 'Do you trust Microsoft?', you get some yeses, and a bunch of noes - the jury's still out. The [perception] is changing but there is a way to go."
Automation, in particular, has helped in the virus fight, with Microsoft taking over more responsibility for patching, Charney said, with tools such as Automatic Update services, aimed at corporate customers.
However, while Microsoft has been pushing its security efforts with high profile releases such as XP SP2, users' fondness for older software is still holding back the dream of secure computing.
"The most recent stuff [software] is more secure," Charney said, "but people aren't using it - they haven't migrated yet."
Comments
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1. Tony T.
Will I ever trust Microsoft? Probably not. Market share has nothing to do with their security problems as Microsoft and others would have you believe. The real issue is shoddy software design which allows almost ridiculous security break downs to occur time and time again. It's cheaper to shift the blame and obscure the problem than fix it. And Microsoft will never fix it until they are held accountable.
2. Nick Bloor
I trust Microsoft as I believe they do their very best to maintain secure software.
I do not trust the Internet environment however as out of all the millions and millions of Internet users it only takes one spotty kid on his parent's pc to bring havoc and devastation, costing the planet billions.
3. anonymous
The question is how many more billions should we lose?
Trust is earned Microsoft has had there day(lots of).
It is no good saying we are trying prove to us with Longhorn we have given up on XP
4. Harold Fuchs
Seems to me that the single biggest source of virus problems is a series of fundamental design flaws in Windows:
1. Most people use their systems as administrators because that's the way Windows comes configured.
2. Most of these administrators don't ever enter a password because that's how Windows is configured "out of the box".
These two idiocies mean that users are connected to the net as administrators which means that anything that does infect their machines automatically has admin powers.
3. You cannot install patches, using Windows Update, unless you are logged in as an administrator. This is crass.
4. You cannot even download the patches and then install while offline; This would help by minimising the time spent online and by being able to download as a non-admin user so that any virus/trojan at least doesn't have admin rights.
Gates and his myrmidons need to fix these 4 major loopholes immediately.
Probably before they do anything else.
5. Mikhail Lomonosov
I can't trust Micro$oft software because it very "secure" for end-user. And all we are don't know, why last one gettin' a lot of disk space on our harddisks? May be Microsoft wanna spy all the users of it's products? It's completely closed machine for making money and I don't believe, that everything is clear in Billy's methods. Micro$oft products must be simple to be trustworthy!
6. anonymous
I did at one time. But with all the new changes being made, I am having my doubts. My main problem is with Bill Gates himself. He (according to the movie) is a bit of a thief himself. I just wonder how much more money he thinks he needs. He has more money than anyone of us replying to this story could ever phathom. Why does he even worry about piracy? Like I said he is a bit of a thief himself
7. A. Lizard
The MS d00d is absolutely right.
"The most recent stuff [software] is more secure," Charney said, "but people aren't using it - they haven't migrated yet."
Well, I'm sure he isn't referring to me, I migrated to Red Hat Fedora Core 2 Linux several months ago.
8. tony w
no i dont, and im looking at transiting to another system as soon as i can,
every version of windows has had a problem, sp2 should of fixed it but never.
so is the same going to happen with the next generation, longhorn? yes i think so.