14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has been beating the drum of Windows Vista as the most secure Windows platform to date for the past six months already. But this tune will not be muted after Vista. In fact, it is very possible that with Vista's successor, Windows Seven, Microsoft is going to use the same leitmotif of evolved security as a backbone to a reinterpreted Wow marketing campaign. Such a scenario is supported by the fact that, three years before Windows Seven is scheduled to hit the shelves, Microsoft is already hard at work and focused on bulletproofing the operating system.
In fact, security sessions on Windows Seven are already under way at the company's Redmond campus. Microsoft security guru Michael Howard confirmed the Redmond company's commitment to the future security of Windows Seven. In a blog post at the end of July, Howard complained about the fact that Windows Seven security training will keep him away from Black Hat 2007 in Las Vegas. "I am sitting at Austin airport about to catch a plane to Redmond to help a cadre of us deliver Windows 7 security training, and I just realized something. Yet again, and highly reminiscent of my post from last year, I won't be at Blackhat this year. In fact, here's a dirty little secret: I have never been to Blackhat! I really should go one of these years! Oh well, I guess the security training is wwwaaayyyy more important", Howard stated.
One aspect in the development of Windows Seven that we have to keep in mind is the fact that, just as Windows Vista, the upcoming operating system will be a product of the secure Development Lifecycle. No code will be authored in Windows Seven, unless it is done under the SDL. And, Howard, as the Senior Security Program Manager in the Security Engineering group at Microsoft, is also the father, or the architect, of the Secure Development Lifecycle. James A. Whittaker, a Security Architect at the Redmond company recently envisioned a time where SDL will be completely swallowed by the software development process. But could the security training for Windows Seven mean that the actual development of the operating system hasn't started? Windows Seven is currently planned for 2010, as Microsoft announced almost a couple of weeks ago, a three years timetable for the platform.