Microsoft to focus more on security

Embarks on advertising campaign to create awareness on security-related issues

Microsoft is increasing its focus on security-related issues for the products and services that it provides globally. This implies not just changes in the technology used but also in processes used for deployment and people who design the software code.

Explaining the rationale behind the increased focus on security, Sanjiv Mathur, director (customer and partner experience), Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Limited, says that after 9/11, people have become more aware of security-related issues.

"Earlier, people were just bothered about the technology aspect ie, whether they are using the latest gizmos available in the market. With regard to security, they were satisfied with firewalls and virus scans. But after 9/11, they have started questioning about what will happen if there is a programmed attack on IT infrastructure," he adds.

"We, however, realised that technology alone is not enough for deploying security in IT infrastructure as although we developed the patch for Nimda virus 311 days before it struck, we could not stop it from attacking. This is because there was no good process for communicating the development of the patch to our customers who are spread across a large footprint," Mathur says.

"This apart, even if it is communicated, there are clients who are worried about the time involved in installing the patch across its network," he adds.

"We, therefore, inform the clients beforehand about when their network will be down for installing of patches, so that alternative arrangements can be made," he adds.

A software patch is a code written for a specific customer to address local functionality issues. These can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft website.

Microsoft has also embarked on an advertising campaign to create awareness on security-related issues for IT infrastructure.

It has also set up a security guidance centre at Bangalore that keeps its clients informed via a call centre about the kind of security issues that need to be addressed over a period of time. It has also installed a hotline for the same purpose.

"We have also made the administration easier by reducing the installations to two from eight for software patches," Mathur says.

Microsoft is also increasing its focus on the 'people' factor by giving training to software developers to develop good security codes.

"We have many IT professionals but not all of them can write good security codes. We are embarking on a training session for all these developers to address this issue," he adds.

"Today the vulnerability of our software is reducing. But the fact is that the time involved between a vulnerability being discovered and a virus attacking the infrastructure is also coming down. This means that the patching process has to be speeded up," Mathur says.