Microsoft's security strategy is still lacking despite new IE, Gartner says

Call us skeptical, but Microsoft has had security as it's "#1 priority" for over two years ago and if anything, Windows has become even less secure. Case in point: entire software industries (anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall) have come about to address Microsoft's gaping security holes. Past experience has proven that independent companies do a much better job than Microsoft at sealing the cracks in their own software.

From IT Manager's Journal

Saturday February 19, 2005 (05:06 PM GMT)

Bill Gates put Microsoft's security strategy front and center this week, announcing a new version of Internet Explorer, free antispyware and an antivirus service, but his vision does not look far enough ahead, a Gartner analyst said.

Neil MacDonald, a research director at Gartner, said Microsoft's security announcements were a missed opportunity.

At the RSA Conference in San Francisco, Gates said Microsoft will release IE 7.0, which continues the hardening of IE 6 with XP Service Pack (SP) 2, in beta in mid-2005. IE 7.0 will not be available for Windows 2000 users.