Microsoft to boost security, create anti-spam Caller ID
By Mike Tarsala
CBS MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates yesterday announced a hodgepodge of plans and industry partnerships to improve software and Internet security, and to end the scourge of e-mail spam with a Caller ID-like system.
Associated Press
"Spam is our e-mail customers' No. 1 complaint today, and Microsoft is innovating on many different fronts to eradicate it," Gates said in a statement.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates spoke yesterday at the University of Illinois in Urbana, the first stop of a five-campus tour.
At a security conference in San Francisco, Gates said the world's largest software maker plans to dramatically cut down on spam through better filtering technologies.
He did not announce timetables for when many of the improved spam-filtering features will be included in the company's e-mail or operating software.
Gates said Microsoft is in the process of developing a Caller ID-like system for e-mail that will allow legitimate e-mail senders to stand out from unsolicited ones.
The company had plans to start a test program for e-mail Caller ID technology in its Hotmail mail service yesterday.
Microsoft said it is working with Amazon.com, Brightmail and Sendmail on e-mail Caller ID.
Another part of Microsoft's anti-spam plan involves having mass e-mail senders pay in computer processing time — about five to 10 seconds for the messages that they send. According to Microsoft, the move could help put many spammers out of business.
"Small organizations need an alternate and inexpensive method to avoid having their e-mail classified as spam, since e-mail policy compliance would necessarily be costly," the company said in a statement. "To address this issue, Microsoft proposes that non-certified organizations pay in computer cycles instead of cash."
Microsoft added that it plans to support development of "behavior policies" for mass e-mail senders, similar to industrywide policies set up for electronic privacy.
Such a plan should allow companies such as banks, brokerages and insurers to get personalized information past spam filters that would block most other "junk" messages, the company said.
Other security issues that have hampered Microsoft customers in recent years include computer worms and viruses, such as Mydoom, SoBig and others that have spread over the Internet in recent months.
At the conference, Gates demonstrated security features Microsoft plans to introduce in its Windows XP Service Pack 2 planned for later this year. They include Windows Firewall software, a feature called Windows Security Center, and browsing enhancements to Windows Explorer.
Microsoft also said it has teamed up with British Telecom, Cox Communications, Earthlink, Korea Telecom, T-Online, and other Internet service companies to make the Web more secure for consumers.
The companies already have teamed up to fight the recent Mydoom virus and its many variants, and will work together to stymie similar malicious code attacks, Microsoft said.
