Microsoft Names PWC Cybercrime Expert To Top Security Post

Microsoft PricewaterhouseCoopers

Before his stint at the big accountancy/consulting firm, Scott Charney spent eight years prior to 1999 at the U.S. Department of Justice as chief of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. Charney replaces Howard Schmidt as Microsoft's security czar.

By virtue of its huge installed base and, some say its weakly designed software, Microsoft has been the target of hackers who have broken into Microsoft-based systems.

In mid-January, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates issued a company-wide memo, also distributed to the press, imploring employees to make security their top priority. The so-called Trustworthy Computing initiative would stress reliability and privacy protection.

"Scott takes a long-term, industrywide perspective on security strategy and understands the critical challenge of building safe and secure software and services for our customers and the industry," Microsoft CTO Craig Mundie said in a prepared statement released Thursday night.