Microsoft To Cooperate with Global Governments for Security Support

HostReview.com
Wednesday, February 2, 2005; 05:08 PM

As part of Microsoft Corp.'s Government Leaders' Forum, hosted this week in Prague, Czech Republic, Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, today announced Microsoft's Security Cooperation Program (SCP).

This offering provides a structured way for governments and Microsoft to engage in cooperative security activities in the areas of computer incident response, attack mitigation and citizen outreach.

The goal of the SCP is to help governments address threats to national security, economic strength and public safety more efficiently and effectively through cooperative projects and information sharing.

This program launches with global support that includes Canada's Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Chile's Ministry of the Interior, the Norwegian National Security Authority, and the state of Delaware Department of Technology and Information.

"This innovative alliance demonstrates the government of Canada's commitment to cybersecurity," said the Honorable Anne McLellan, deputy prime minister and minister of public safety and emergency preparedness for the government of Canada.

As participants, Canada, Chile, Norway and the United States will work cooperatively with Microsoft, exchanging information that can be used to better anticipate, help prevent, and respond to and mitigate the effects of information technology (IT) security attacks.

Among the types of data to be exchanged are these:
• Information about publicly known and reported vulnerabilities that Microsoft is investigating
• Information about upcoming and released software updates to facilitate resource planning and deployment
• Security incident metrics
• Incident information in the event of a critical incident or emergency
• Information on Microsoft® product security, Microsoft's approach to security, and its incident response process

"The Digital Age creates some unique challenges for governments to help secure their computing environments," said Gerri Elliott, corporate vice president for the worldwide public sector at Microsoft.

"Safeguarding IT security is a daunting job for any organization, but for a national government it's an especially formidable task," said Cristián Peña Arenas, chief technology officer for the government of Chile.

"One of Delaware's technology goals is to be ever vigilant in increasing cybersecurity," said Thomas Jarrett, chief information officer for Delaware.

"We are delighted to be an ally with Microsoft in its new Security Cooperation Program and look forward to providing improved cybersecurity defenses for our state government network."

The Security Cooperation Program is a no-fee program that helps further strengthen Microsoft's comprehensive approach to providing the technology and services that help enable secure government computing environments.