Microsoft wants rival operating systems Linux and Mac OS X alongside the Windows platform, aliened for a new initiative designed to bring its Trustworthy Computing strategy to the Internet. In this context, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie, while on stage at the RSA Conference 2008, revealed the company's vision for an End to End Trust model that will shape the future of user security and privacy on the Internet. Essentially, the End to End Trust is a move that will deliver not only an enhanced level of control to end users over how their data is handled online, but also with various options.

"We believe that End to End Trust will transform how the industry thinks about and approaches online trust and security. Our end goal is a more secure and trustworthy Internet, but it's also important that we give people the tools that empower them to make good trust choices. End to End Trust will enable new opportunities for collaboration on solutions to social, political, economic and technical issues that will have a long-term impact on Internet security and privacy," Mundie stated.

Microsoft has already went live with the End to End Trust Web site and is offering resources that are meant to permit an insight into the company's new vision. In order to increase the levels of both security and privacy on the Internet, Microsoft is proposing that operating systems, applications, users and information form a single trusted stack. At the same time, authentication and trustworthiness are intimately connected with the existence of a system capable of assuring authentication, authorization, access and audit of online identities. And, last but definitely not least, Mundie emphasized the need for various organizations starting with IT companies and ending with the government, to cooperate on the initiative.

"Along with our industry partners, Microsoft continues to make progress toward creating more secure, private and reliable computing experiences, but Microsoft and the technology industry alone cannot create a trusted online experience. For that to happen, the industry must not only come together but also work with customers, partners, governments and other key constituencies on a road map for extending Trustworthy Computing to the Internet," revealed Scott Charney, corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft.