Gates strengthens grills on Windows

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp. demonstrated new security features of its Windows operating system and Chairman Bill Gates said the company has made progress in its battle against computer worms and viruses.

"Over the last two years, I think we've made a lot of progress," Gates told attendees on Tuesday at the RSA computer security conference in San Francisco, since the company launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative in 2002.

In addition to worms and viruses hitting Microsoft-based systems, the world's largest software company has also suffered from vulnerabilities in Windows that allowed hackers to potentially compromise or damage computers and systems.

"Everything we're doing has been impacted" by security problems, said Gates, who is also Microsoft's chief software architect. "My basic view is I'm very optimistic, but there is a lot of work ahead of us."

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft demonstrated enhanced security features of an interim release of its Windows XP operating system, known as Service Pack 2, or SP2, due out later this year.

The update, which will come ahead of the release of the next version of Windows code-named Longhorn and due out around 2006, has a pop-up window block built in to Internet Explorer, as well as an enhanced, stronger firewall and a new feature that Microsoft calls Windows Security Center.

In addition to other security functions, Windows Security Center will alert a user if there is no anti-virus software installed on the computer, whether the software is up to date or whether it is turned on. It also manages the download of Active-X controls, which are small bits of software used in the display of Web pages that can become security risks if maliciously used.

Making an interconnected digital world secure demands more than merely releasing a series of single products or tinkering with threats, Gates said.

"It's not a case of fixing a few vulnerabilities and moving on," Gates said.

Gates also said that the company was issuing a proposal this week detailing its plans to eradicate -- or at least vastly reduce -- the prevalence and danger of spam, or unwanted e-mails that are either advertisements or can contain computer viruses.

"Spam is both a nuisance ... (and) a security threat," Gates said.

He said that Microsoft's approach aims to establish a verifiable identity in e-mail through a caller-ID approach. Microsoft is moving ahead with plans for a pilot caller-ID program for e-mail in its Hotmail service. Hotmail will begin publishing outbound IP addresses today and will begin checking inbound addresses early this summer.

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In addition, it is working to develop policies that would let high-volume e-mail senders continue to send bulk messages while complying with anti-spam and security procedures.

At the same time, Microsoft proposed plans for small outfits that need a way to avoid having their e-mail classified as spam without incurring the kind of compliance costs that only larger organizations can afford.

The company proposed that smaller organizations that cannot afford certification by independent e-mail trust authorities could instead pay for non-spam authentication with time rather than cash. Microsoft said it has developed a way for such non-certified senders to prove that they have indeed spent a few seconds of computer processing time on each message, something that spammers, who send millions of e-mails, could not afford to do.

© Reuters