Reflecting on 20 years of Patch Tuesday

This year is a landmark moment for Microsoft as we observe the 20th anniversary of Patch Tuesday updates, an initiative that has become a cornerstone of the IT world’s approach to cybersecurity. Originating from the Trustworthy Computing memo by Bill Gates in 2002, our unwavering commitment to...

Celebrating 20 Years of Trustworthy Computing

20 years ago this week, Bill Gates sent a now-famous email to all Microsoft employees announcing the creation of the Trustworthy Computing TwC initiative. The initiative was intended to put customer security, and ultimately customer trust, at the forefront for all Microsoft employees. Gates’ memo...

Celebrating 20 Years of Trustworthy Computing

20 years ago this week, Bill Gates sent a now-famous email to all Microsoft employees announcing the creation of the Trustworthy Computing TwC initiative. The initiative was intended to put customer security, and ultimately customer trust, at the forefront for all Microsoft employees. Gates’ memo...

A decade inside Microsoft Security

Ten years ago, I walked onto Microsofts Redmond campus to take a role on a team that partnered with governments and CERTs on cybersecurity. Id just left a meaningful career in US federal government service because I thought it would be fascinating to experience first-hand the security challenges...

Moving Beyond EMET

EMET – Then and Now Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing initiative was 7 years old in 2009 when we first released the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit EMET. Despite substantial improvements in Windows OS security during that same period, it was clear that the way we shipped Windows at the tim...

Creaking Patch Tuesday's Viability Rests with Quality, Speed

Today is Patch Tuesday, the 11-year-old procession of security bulletins from Microsoft streamed out automatically to consumers of Windows Update, and pulled en masse by enterprise admins worldwide needing to test each for compatibility. This is how it’s been done since shortly after Bill Gates’...

Microsoft Shuts Down Patch Tuesday Advanced Notifications

Microsoft today pulled the plug on its Advanced Notification Service ANS, offering it going forward only to paying Premier customers. ANS preceded the release of Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday security bulletins; on the Thursday prior, Microsoft would provide users via its security website a...

Charney on Trustworthy Computing: 'I Was the Architect of These Changes'

Scott Charney, the head of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing efforts, said that he was the one who decided it was time to move the TwC group in a new direction and integrate the security functions more deeply into the company as a whole. “I was the architect of these changes. This is not about th...

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso Discuss All Things Apple Security, Home Depot and Microsoft

Dennis Fisher and Mike Mimoso talk abut the crazy news of the last couple of weeks, the Apple privacy and Apple Pay announcements, the details of the Home Depot breach and the end of the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing unit. Download: digitalunderground167.mp3 Music by Chris Gonsalves...

Era Ends With Break Up of Trustworthy Computing Group at Microsoft

In a move that has surprised many in the security community, Microsoft has disbanded its Trustworthy Computing unit, the group that was responsible for the pioneering work that helped reverse the company’s security reputation and make Windows a much more secure and reliable computing platform. Th...

Microsoft Exec Says Company Has Never Been Asked to Backdoor a Product

One of Microsoft’s top security executives said the company has never been asked by the United States government to build a backdoor into any of its products, and if the company was asked, it would fight the order in the courts. Since the Edward Snowden revelations began last summer, there have...

Microsoft Releases Free Threat Modeling Tool 2014

Threat modeling has been part of the security culture at Microsoft for the better part of a decade, an important piece of the Security Development Lifecycle that’s at the core of Trustworthy Computing. Today, Microsoft updated its free Threat Modeling Tool with a number of enhancements that bring...

Introduction: Chris Betz, new head of MSRC

By way of introduction, I am Chris Betz, the leader of the Microsoft Security Response Center MSRC. I’m stepping in to fill the shoes of Mike Reavey, who has moved on to become the General Manager of Secure Operations, still within Trustworthy Computing. Since joining the MSRC, I’ve spent time...

A Decade of Microsoft Patch Tuesday Security Updates

On Oct. 9, 2003, Microsoft announced its new security patching process that would end up being a catalyst for significant change in the information security community. Ten years ago, the program was announced with a press release that promised “Improved patch management processes, policies and...

Oracle's Java Security Plans Don't Address Sandbox Flaws

For all of Oracle’s bluster last Thursday about Java security enhancements, next to nothing was said about the real issue behind months of misery this year: the Java sandbox. Oracle broke its radio silence late last week with an out-of-the-blue blogpost full of promises about getting Java right...

Researchers, Vendors Await Google Disclosure Fallout

The endless loop that is the disclosure debate got a jolt of energy yesterday when Google said it would support researchers’ disclosure of details on actively exploited critical vulnerabilities just seven days after the researcher has notified the vendor in question. Google hopes the policy...

Oracle Delays Java 8 Features for Security Overhaul

It’s not quite the development freeze Microsoft underwent during the Trustworthy Computing push, but it’s a start for Oracle, which will delay the release of Java 8 until Q1 of next year, largely because the platform and browser plug-in is such a security disaster. This year has done nothing but...

Microsoft Publishes Workaround for Oracle Outside In Vulnerability

Microsoft gave its users steps earlier this week to sidestep a vulnerability in one of Oracle’s Outside In libraries. The company published some mitigations for the bug, but said it isn’t aware of any active attacks against it yet. The Oracle technology is licensed by software developers like...

Microsoft's SDL Expands Beyond Redmond

It’s been more than 10 years now since Microsoft began the initiative that would eventually become Trustworthy Computing, and while the effects it’s had inside the company have been well documented, the utility and adoption of the Security Development Lifecycle by outside organizations and...

UPDATE: Slammed And Blasted A Decade Ago, Microsoft Got Serious About Security

UPDATE: A decade ago this week, Chairman Bill Gates kicked off the Trustworthy Computing Initiative at Microsoft with a company-wide memo. The echoes of that memo still resonate throughout the software industry today as other firms, from Apple to Adobe, and Oracle to Google have followed the path...