Microsoft To Customers: Want Better Security? Upgrade

By Mitch Wagner

Microsoft said customers need to upgrade to the latest versions of Windows to get stronger security.

Customers' continued reliance on earlier versions of Windows, rather than the current Windows 2000 and Windows XP, is slowing down efforts to secure the global computing infrastructure, Craig Mundie, Microsoft chief technical officer, said in an address at the company's campus in Mountain View, Calif. He said it's impossible to retrofit earlier versions of Windows to make them secure.

"We're dragging around behind us a giant tail of systems that were of course built and deployed a long time ago," Mundie said.

He said Microsoft's goal of achieving computer security, which the company calls Trustworthy Computing, is still a long way off.

Mundie said he's concerned that users will lose faith in computers due to security breaches.