Microsoft Introduces Anti-Spam, Antivirus, And Storage Security InitiativesMicrosoft Introduces Anti-Spam, Antivirus, And Storage Security Initiatives

Microsoft unveiled several security initiatives on Monday, including anti-spam and antivirus technology, and support for a storage security standard.

The vendor introduced anti-spam and antivirus tools for Exchange, antivirus tools for Word and the Windows file system, and an initiative to drive industry support for the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (Radius) protocol for dial-in to storage-area networks.

The anti-spam tool for Exchange Server 2003 will let third-party software scan incoming E-mail messages and attach a numeric score, or Spam Confidence Level, to each message that indicates the probability that the message is spam. E-mail administrators can set the probability threshold to determine whether messages should be forwarded to the recipient's inbox or junk mail folder.

The Exchange client, Microsoft Outlook 2003, includes its own anti-spam technology, allowing users to create filters that block HTML content by default, create "block" blacklists and "safe" white lists of E-mail addresses, and profile spam by looking for keywords and patterns. Users can save Outlook safe and block lists on Exchange servers to enable the users to use the lists while working from any desktop or device connected to the network. E-mail administrators can assign enterprise-wide "allow-deny" lists and integrate Real-time Black List services.

Exchange Server 2003 is scheduled to be released in midyear.

Microsoft also introduced version 2.5 of the Virus-Scanning API (VSAPI), which lets third-party virus-blocking software integrate with Exchange 2003. The update lets third-party software developers to develop antivirus technology that scan both incoming and outgoing E-mail messages to block viruses.

Microsoft is also building new virus-scanning capabilities in Word 2003. Microsoft added three flags to the header of documents saved in the native Word XML file format to allow scanning software to more quickly determine if a document contains potentially dangerous embedded objects or macros, and to let the software remove the dangerous code.

The company is building a new Windows File System Filter Manager Architecture designed to allow developers to integrate antivirus software with Windows.

Microsoft said it is working to drive greater adoption of the Internet Engineering Task Force Radius standard. Microsoft said it's working with storage area network fabric vendors such as Brocade Communications and QLogic to broaden Radius adoption and integrate it into Active Directory.

Microsoft is supporting Radius using technology in Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 called Internet Authentication Service.