Dana Epp's ramblings at the Sanctuary: Microsoft Progress Report: Security


« Patching vs. Intrusion Prevention \| Main \| Processes to Produce Secure Software » March 31, 2004 Microsoft Progress Report: Security Bill Gates fired off one of Microsoft's periodic "Executive E-mail" blasts today to customers to revisits Microsoft's ongoing security initiatives. In the email he goes into discussion on four key areas: Isolation and Resiliency Updating Quality Authentication and Access Control I will let you judge for yourself on his views. Personally, I quite enjoyed reading the email. I was quite interested in some of the stats he spoke of as it relates to their new code quality efforts. Here is a quick summary: The number of "critical" or "important" security bulletins issued for Windows Server 2003, compared to Windows 2000 Server, dropped from 40 to 9 in the first 320 days each product was on the market. Similarly, for SQL Server 2000, there were 3 bulletins issued in the 15 months after release of Service Pack 3, compared to 13 bulletins in the 15 months prior to its release. With Exchange 2000 SP3, there was just 1 bulletin in the 21 months after its release, compared to 7 bulletins in the 21 months prior. Anyways, take some time and go read the email. In the meantime, lets end this entry quoting Bill: Technology has come an incredibly long way in the past two decades, and it is far too important to let a few criminals stop the rest of us from enjoying its amazing benefits. Amen. Posted by SilverStr at March 31, 2004 07:33 PM \| TrackBack Comments If they are considering after release defects, they should compare usage to defect ratios. Though these are hard to measure, but if one product is not used that much as the other, its natural less defects will be found. Posted by: Khurram at September 9, 2004 08:44 AM		My 5 Favorite Books Writing Secure Code Secure Programming Cookbook Security Engineering Secure Coding Principles & Practice Inside the Security Mind My 5 Favorite Papers Smashing the Stack Penetration Studies Covert Channel Analysis of Trusted Systems DoD Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria NSA Security Recommendation Guides Archives June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 GeoURL

March 31, 2004

Microsoft Progress Report: Security