Speaking at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner conference in Toronto, Mike Nash, corporate VP of the security business and technology unit at Microsoft, said key milestones include the forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 and the availability of Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004 standard edition.

The overhaul of Microsoft's security update tools and processes has also yielded results. There has been a 400 per cent growth in consumer use of Windows Automatic Update in the last 10 months, and 112,000 unique servers now connect to Microsoft's website for software update services.

But Nash said many users are still too reactive about security. "I'm still surprised how many customers have not thought about a security plan," he said.

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