Microsoft’s invitation to hackers, however, was not an opened-ended offer. The software behemouth made a special appearance at this week’s 10th annual Black Hat convention in Las Vegas, where some of the most sophisticated corporate security and underground computer geeks assemble each year to share secrets of the trade.
In addition to acting as one of Black Hat’s sponsors, Microsoft ran a series of network sessions detailing the lengths it has gone through to make Vista impenetrable to security exploits and attacks. Microsoft also challenged hackers to test out Vista by offering 3,000 test versions of the operating system to any hacker with a hankering to find Vista’s flaws and share them with its security development team.
After repeatedly postponing the rollout date for Vista, Microsoft is under mounting pressure to make sure Vista and its browser, Internet Explorer 7 browser, are state-of-the-art in terms of preventing the theft of personal identification information and the spreading of viruses. Microsoft’s reputation as the leading software maker has been irreparably compromised in recent years due to the large number of security flaws found in its browsers
As a result, Microsoft is making sure that its engineers and security advisors thoroughly test out every potential network flaw before releasing the new operating system.
Internet Explorer 7 is set for release in the 4th quarter of this year and is the first web browser update for Microsoft in more than five years. When released, it will be offered as an automatic update in Windows XP.
All totaled, Microsoft expects the tab on the development and marketing of Vista to top more than $1 billion, including hundreds of millions spent on sales and marketing initiatives once the operating system makes its worldwide debut.
The current release date for Vista, after numerous delays already, is set for the 1st quarter of 2007, although Microsoft has hinted at the possibility of additional delays if more improvements are needed on Vista.
Black Hat, which was founded in 1996 by security expert Jeff Moss, drew a record crowd at this year’s July 29-31 convention. Black Hat is immediately followed by Defcon on Aug. 4-6, another conference that caters to the hacker community.
