Microsoft teaches 'safe practice' computing on-screen

Munir Kotadia
ZDNet UK
April 28, 2004, 10:05 BST

At the InfoSecurity show in London on Tuesday, Microsoft said it hoped that new versions of its Windows and Office products will educate customers about security through the use of dialogue boxes and warning messages, and by offering to automatically configure the user's security settings.

In January 2002, Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates launched the trustworthy computing initiative, which fundamentally changed the way that Microsoft develops software by making security its No.1 priority. In June, Microsoft will launch Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, which is designed to increase the operating system's security and make it easier for end users to control and manage their security settings.

Jonathan Perera, senior director of Microsoft's security business technology unit, which was created to head-up the Trustworthy Computing Initiative, said that users will be educated in a number of different ways, such as by providing better security information with new computers and more dialogue boxes in its software for on-the-fly training. Perera said the new dialogue boxes will appear when a user tries to do something that is not considered "safe practice", such as opening an executable attachment.

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