Microsoft confident XP update will baffle hackers

Microsoft's UK head Alistair Baker has thrown down the gauntlet to would-be hackers.


Bring them on: Microsoft XP v. the hackers
He said his company's Windows XP operating system update, launched last month by Bill Gates, was the "first big line we have drawn in the sand" to combat security breaches and spam.

He challenged hackers: "If you could get through that I would be impressed."

Bookies immediately offered punters odds of 2-1 on that the system would be hacked by the end of the year.

More generous odds of 6-4 were offered to those willing to bet the new update, called service pack two (SP2), would stand up to scrutiny.

The update, available free of charge from Microsoft, cost $1billion to develop - a seventh of the firm's total annual R&D budget - and has helped delay the release of a new version of Microsoft's three-year-old XP operating system, called Longhorn.

Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, warned Windows XP users that they needed the update to ensure their PCs were "better isolated and more resilient in the face of increasingly sophisticated attacks".

Mr Baker said the update represented a "transistory phase" for Microsoft users. At present, he admitted, security was a "big risk" because the operating system's "potential weaknesses" were being exploited by hackers. But the arrival of SP2 would mean "we are very much in control of the issue".

He added that Microsoft expected 2.5m SP2 downloads a day from its website, with a target of seeing the software installed on 100m desktop computers by November. He advised firms with PCs using the Windows 98 operating system that it was not designed with the internet and e-mail in mind but they could download the upgrades to cut the risk of attack.


THE MUL

 

Did it really cost 1 billion dollar to make XP SP2, I can not believe that. LOL so much money for something that can be done with other software that's freeware, get the hell out of here.

 

is it really thought of to be that secure? im shocked

 

LOL...
I just received my SP2 disc yesterday, but will hold off installing for a while, until I see how many more little troubles it may hold in store for me.

So, I guess that means I am not secure yet? Shucks!!

Thanks for the post Mul.

Cheers, TAS