“As it attempts its steepest corporate reinvention yet,
Microsoft is painting itself as the company with products large
enterprises can rely on to grow their businesses into the New
Economy. Yet as demonstrated by the hacker attack uncovered last
week, Microsoft itself cannot totally protect precious data from
unwanted – and illegal – incursion in a Windows-based
environment.”
“Microsoft’s Silicon Valley competitors, while acknowledging
no company is immune to hacker attacks, say Windows has greater
security challenges than older, more mature systems built on Unix
and a Unix spinoff, Linux….“
“Microsoft, whose explanations have changed a number of times
since initial news reports about the incident, said it is
withholding numerous details to avoid hindering an FBI
investigation….”
“Microsoft defended the integrity of its network security,
noting that hacking of corporate networks occurs regularly. On the
other hand, the company’s request that the FBI investigate
indicated this incident held greater significance, apparently based
on the company’s inability to track down or trap the intruder.”