The Register: Microsoft struts into Net security market; Would you buy a firewall from Bill?

“Microsoft leapt into the network security market this week with
the Valentine’s Day introduction of its Internet Security and
Acceleration (ISA) Server — a network firewall that will compete
in the same arena as Check Point’s FireWall-1 and Network
Associates’ Gauntlet.”

“ISA Server includes integrated intrusion detection and Web
proxying, among other features. The company says the firewall
survived hacker penetration tests, and performed reliably in a
public beta period that began last June. According to a
Microsoft technical report, ISA Server even protects the company’s
corporate network, which handles a whopping forty thousand client
computers accessing over forty million Internet URLs every
day.”

“Of course, that last part would be more impressive had
Microsoft’s corporate network not suffered a widely publicized
intrusion last October. Then, earlier this month, the software
giant got another security black eye when a distributed denial of
service attack knocked its Web properties offline and it had to go
running to Akamai for succor. And this week saw the Kournikova
e-mail virus sweep through Windows machines, while Web vandals
gleefully defaced the New York Times, Intel, Compaq and other sites
by exploiting security holes in Microsoft’s IIS Web server.”

Complete
Story