Microsoft Strengthens Security Support for Governments With Security Cooperation Program

As part of Microsoft Corp.'s Government Leaders' Forum, hosted this week in Prague, Czech Republic, Bill H. Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, yesterday announced Microsoft's Security Cooperation Program (SCP).

This offering provides a structured way for governments and Microsoft to engage in cooperative security activities in the areas of computer incident response, attack mitigation and citizen outreach. The goal of the SCP is to help governments address threats to national security, economic strength and public safety more efficiently and effectively through cooperative projects and information sharing. This program launches with global support that includes the governments of Canada, Chile, Norway and the United States.

"This innovative alliance demonstrates the government of Canada's commitment to cybersecurity," said the Honorable Anne McLellan, deputy prime minister and minister of public safety and emergency preparedness for the government of Canada. "Prevention of cyberdisruptions and improving our capacity to respond to incidents are critical to securing both our economy and public safety."

As participants, Canada, Chile, Norway and the United States will work cooperatively with Microsoft, exchanging information that can be used to better anticipate, help prevent, and respond to and mitigate the effects of information technology (IT) security attacks. Among the types of data to be exchanged are these:

• Information about publicly known and reported vulnerabilities that Microsoft is investigating


• Information about upcoming and released software updates to facilitate resource planning and deployment


• Security incident metrics


• Incident information in the event of a critical incident or emergency


• Information on Microsoft product security, Microsoft's approach to security, and its incident response process.

In addition to information exchange, the SCP provides opportunities for cooperation with Microsoft on projects identified by the participating government agencies, including these:

• Cooperative consumer outreach and education activities, including development and distribution of materials and special events


• Collaboration in computer incident response processes, including joint response in the event of an emergency.

"The digital age creates some unique challenges for governments to help secure their computing environments," said Gerri Elliott, corporate vice president for the worldwide public sector at Microsoft. "By taking a collaborative approach with global governments, we can bring to bear the combined expertise from public and private sectors and enable governments to better prepare, manage and mitigate the impact of security incidents."

"Safeguarding IT security is a daunting job for any organization, but for a national government it's an especially formidable task," said Cristi