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RSS feedsMicrosoft chairman Bill Gates declared in 2003 that security is a top priority and launched the firm's Security Development Lifecycle initiative. The company appointed Mike Nash as corporate vice president overseeing the Security Technology Unit.
The forthcoming launch of Windows Vista marks the first desktop operating system developed under the new security focus, and is considered a vital test for Nash's work.
Nash is about to step down from his current job and go on a three-month sabbatical. He will be replaced by Ben Fathi, who previously worked as general manager for storage and high availability in the Windows group.
During the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle, vnunet.com sat down with Nash to talk about Vista's security and future directions for security within Microsoft.
This interview is also available as an audio podcast on the Silicon Valley Sleuth blog.
Is your job done now that Microsoft has launched Window Vista Beta 2?
Overall we have a lot of work to do to make sure we address customer needs around 'fit and finish' and verify the security of Window Vista. Beta 2 is a milestone for customers to evaluate the work we've done for the platform overall.
What are the big security advancements in Vista?
There are really two big areas on which we focused. Number one is the focus around quality and security engineering, but we're also focusing around adding the appropriate features into the operating system.
For a quality perspective, about four years ago or so Bill Gates published his Trustworthy Computing memo. This was talking about not just the kinds of products we want to built, but also the way we want to build products.
Certainly security is an important pillar of Trustworthy Computing. Overall we've learned a lot about security over the last four or five years and in particular developed a new engineering process called the Security Development Lifecycle.
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