10 years ago this week, Bill Gates sent this Trustworthy Computing (TwC) memo to all employees. The memo called for the company to rethink its approach to products – putting security at the forefront. To capture the journey we’ve made in Trustworthy Computing over the last 10 years – the Trustworthy Computing (or TwC) Team has created this infographic on Microsoft News Center I recommend checking out. You should also read this blog post from the Microsoft Security Blog.
Today, Windows 7 makes it super easy for people to stay safe and secure with their PC. For example Action Center helps make sure a person’s firewall is on (such as the built in Windows Firewall) and if antivirus software is installed and up to date. It will alert you if either of these is not operating as they should. Windows 7 also includes Windows Defender which helps keep a person’s PC protected against spyware and unwanted software. You can also protect your data from theft with BitLocker which encrypts your hard drive. BitLocker-to-Go can be used to encrypt USB thumb drives if you’re storing important data on thumb drives. These are only some of the security features in Windows 7 designed to make your PC safe and secure.
When pairing Windows 7 with the latest release of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 9 – a person’s PC is even more safe and secure. For example – according to two reports recently released by NSS Labs, an independent security research and testing organization, tests show IE9 protects against more than 99% of socially engineered malware thanks to features like SmartScreen and Application Reputation (for more – see this blog post on Exploring IE).
And with SmartScreen in Hotmail, as of this last summer we’ve reduced true spam in Hotmail inboxes to less than 3%. And Hotmail has declared war on graymail with new features this last fall.
You can see the results of Trustworthy Computing in Windows today.