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Microsoft 'Trustworthy Computing' Turns 10

Posted by Soulskill on from the eat-your-cake-at-your-desk dept.

gManZboy writes "Bill Gates fired off his famous Trustworthy Computing memo to Microsoft employees on Jan. 15, 2002, amid a series of high-profile attacks on Windows computers and browsers in the form of worms and viruses like Code Red and 'Anna Kournikova.' The onslaught forced Gates to declare a security emergency within Microsoft, and halt production while the company's 8,500 software engineers sifted through millions of lines of source code to identify and fix vulnerabilities. The hiatus cost Microsoft $100 million. Today, the stakes are much higher. 'TWC Next' will include a focus on cloud services such as Azure, the company says."

3 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Microsoft Succeeded by Sarten-X · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For the past decade, Microsoft has been where it is now: equal or worse. Internet Explorer shares the browser market with Chrome. Windows 7 shares the desktop market with XP and OS X. XBox shares the console market with PS3 and Wii.

    Being as good as your competitors means that when something bad does happen, like a new zero-day exploit in the wild that makes the headlines, the company drops back to second place. Regardless of its current improved security, Microsoft will never regain lost reputation until they produce a series of spectacular products that are consistently better than any competitor. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

    --
    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  2. Re:Not a shill at all by grimmjeeper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Shill or not, he has a point. Security within Windows and Internet Exploder have improved over the years. It may not be all wine and roses but it's not as bad as it once was.

    Of course, there still is a long way to go...

  3. Re:Microsoft Succeeded by artor3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While the OP is clearly a shill, your refutations ring hollow.

    Using Firefox's own usage stats, only about 0.5% of users use NoScript. Comparing that tiny segment to the standard IE install makes no sense.

    Then, on the other side, you focus on people who turn off UAC, and ignore the hundreds of millions who leave it on.

    Basically, from each group, you're cherry picking whichever segment best supports your argument, even when that segment is in no way representative.