Last week I watched the webcast of Bill Gates speaking at the RSA conference in San Francisco. He talked about Microsoft's plans to build upon the progress it's already made in security. These plans included better protection against spyware and spam. Gates also announced Microsoft's intention to release Internet Explorer 7, complete with a number of security improvements, by the end of this year.

Looking back, the company has indeed made notable progress in the security of its software. Windows XP SP2 is a significant achievement, and Gates reported that over 170 million people have downloaded the update. The low-hanging fruit of millions of insecure Windows machines is rapidly falling from the tree.

By Mark Burnett at The Register.

[ Read more ]