Gates Has Work To Do On Security

Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates last week issued a security update and announced a 21-city road show to give customers more information on Microsoft's plans.

But some security specialists say regardless of its investment, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft still faces a credibility issue. "We tell customers thinking about implementing [Microsoft] patch management that it's almost like putting a fox in charge of the henhouse," said Michelle Drolet, CEO of security VAR Conquest, Holliston, Mass. It is safer to use third-party assessment and best practices, she added.

It doesn't help that the open-source crowd blasts Microsoft technology as fundamentally unsound, a premise many integrators dispute. "All operating systems have flaws, and Windows 2003 is actually quite sound," said one large Microsoft integrator. "They're getting hammered, and [customers hear] the negative," so it is good that Gates and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer are front and center on this subject, he said.