Ballmer: Everyone has stake in cybersecurity

IDG News Service - Everyone, from computer users to software vendors to government agencies, is responsible for cybersecurity, Microsoft Corp.'s CEO told a crowd in Washington today.
Steve Ballmer didn't outline new security initiatives in his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, but he outlined the steps Microsoft has taken since Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates called for security to become a top priority for the company in January 2002.
Among the steps Microsoft will take on security is releasing a service pack, due out in a couple of months, for the Windows XP operating system that will have a firewall turned on by default, Ballmer said. A similar update to Microsoft's server operating system will come later. Future versions of the Internet Explorer browser will block automatic pop-up ads and downloads without the user's permission, he said.
"Security is absolutely the -- I was going to say 'a,' but I'll say 'the' -- top priority at Microsoft," Ballmer said.
Microsoft is also working on ways to block viruses and worms before computers execute their code, he said. "The computer can look at [the code] and say, 'It doesn't smell right to me. I won't execute this without asking the user for permission,'" Ballmer said of the behavior-blocking initiative he called "active protection technology."
But Microsoft and other software vendors aren't alone in their responsibility to secure computers and the Internet, Ballmer said. He called on government agencies to work with vendors on security research, pass laws that target cybercriminals and help raise public awareness about cybersecurity.
"As a global leader in software, our company ... and our products are often the prime target for cybercriminals," Ballmer said. "Yet this is not really about any single technology or computing platform or company. It's bigger than any single company."

This week, Ballmer talked to Tom Ridge, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about ways to better anticipate cyberattacks, he said. "The kinds of attacks we've seen -- that have these kinds of crazy names like Blaster and Sobig and Mydoom -- once unimaginable, are crimes we need to both anticipate and act against," Ballmer said.
Ballmer also called on individual users to take responsibility for their own corner of cyberspace. Users need to keep up with software updates, use personal firewalls and update their antivirus software, Ballmer said. Less than 30% of users who run antivirus software keep it current, he said.
"This is not only a responsibility to themselves, but also to their neighbors," Ballmer said. He