Microsoft for safer software

Microsoft Corporation India is currently on an assurance drive that its products were increasingly hack proof and corporate and home users alike could use them safely, with enhanced safety being delivered through patches.

Companies were told at an awareness creation seminar organised by Microsoft here that it had also taken up writing hack-proof software that would not need patches after purchase.

"This initiative from 2004 has resulted in Microsoft shipping fewer patches," explained Abhijit Das, Microsoft's manager for platform strategies.

Every time a critical patch was written, Microsoft called up as many as 1,300 customers to provide information and support for upgrading products, and sent mailers to all.

Microsoft will alert customers in remote locations as well through newspapers and other media. A large number of camps and programmes to educate corporate and individual users will be held, Das said.

Microsoft feels patches were needed only is a programme was loosely written and therefore exposed to security breaches.

Figures supplied by MCIPL showed that for Windows Server 2003 Microsoft released 12 security bulletins fixing 17 (16 unique) vulnerabilities, with an average days-of-risk of 19.65 days.

For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Advanced Server, Red Hat released 42 security advisories fixing 101 (95 unique) vulnerabilities, with an average days-of-risk of 34.35 days, while for Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9, Novell has released 24 security advisories fixing 137 (130 unique) vulnerabilities, with an average days-of-risk of 32.30 days.