News

Gates Highlights Security, Spam in Comdex Keynote

Bill Gates opened Comdex reiterating Microsoft’s security messages and showing publicly for the first time several new security and spam-blocking technologies.

(Las Vegas) Bill Gates opened Comdex with his annual keynote, reiterating some of Microsoft’s messages from recent events and showing publicly for the first time several new security and spam-blocking technologies.

After a quick demonstration of the just-released Systems Management Server 2003’s patching capabilities, Zachary Goot, technical product manager in the Microsoft Security Products Group, gave the first public demonstration of Internet Security & Acceleration Server 2004, Microsoft’s upcoming new release of its firewall and proxy server software.

“This technology augments firewalls that are deployed today, traditional firewalls, by adding application layer security,” Goot said. Showing a new feature called Network Templates, Goot demonstrated how an administrator can drop the firewall activities into a specific place in the network through the use of a wizard. ISA Server automatically detects the internal network IP settings and allows the admin to define the default firewall policies. The wizard generates the rules, which the admin can customize for a specific environment with a context-sensitive drag and drop toolbox that appears at the right side of the screen.

A new feature called HTTP Filter takes advantage of application layer security to detect certain types of traffic – such as a particular type of file download – and stop it while still allowing Web browsing to happen. The filtering blocks activities by evaluating the user-agent header of an HTTP request to identify specific signatures designated by the admin. Goot said the technology could also be used to block Nimda, Code Red and their successors, by identifying their signatures.

[The rest of this article is available on ENTmag.com, at http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=6034.—Editor.]

About the Author

Dian L. Schaffhauser is a freelance writer based in Northern California.

Featured

  • Report: Cost, Sustainability Drive DaaS Adoption Beyond Remote Work

    Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service reveals that while secure remote access remains a key driver of DaaS adoption, a growing number of deployments now focus on broader efficiency goals.

  • Windows 365 Reserve, Microsoft's Cloud PC Rental Service, Hits Preview

    Microsoft has launched a limited public preview of its new "Windows 365 Reserve" service, which lets organizations rent cloud PC instances in the event their Windows devices are stolen, lost or damaged.

  • Hands-On AI Skills Now Outshine Certs in Salary Stakes

    For AI-related roles, employers are prioritizing verifiable, hands-on abilities over framed certificates -- and they're paying a premium for it.

  • Roadblocks in Enterprise AI: Data and Skills Shortfalls Could Cost Millions

    Businesses risk losing up to $87 million a year if they fail to catch up with AI innovation, according to the Couchbase FY 2026 CIO AI Survey released this month.