Upgrade for security, Microsoft boss tells customers

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has warned users of the company's older operating systems that they will have to upgrade if they want to use the internet securely.

Speaking during a visit to London, Ballmer hinted that there is unlikely to be anything like the Windows XP Service Pack 2 for customers using pre-XP operating systems.

"Why doesn't everyone move [operating systems]? I think that it doesn't serve customers' best interests to release SP2 for Windows 2000 users," he said.

"It would not offer anything like the benefits they would get from upgrading and, if we released it, it would be a bad solution for [customers] to take it."

Ballmer identified notebook users and home workers as the highest priority for upgrades. These users are the highest risk to corporate security, particularly laptop users moving inside and outside the IT perimeter on a regular basis.

He stressed that security is the number one priority at Microsoft, and would remain so at least until the end of the decade.

Ballmer described the company's current progress towards secure computing as quite good, but stressed that there is a lot more work to be done.

He added that the delay to the release of Microsoft's forthcoming Longhorn operating system is due partly to development resources being assigned to SP2 instead.

"It was not a case of people being pulled from one room and stuck in another," said Ballmer. "But people working on core technologies and system integrators were focused on SP2, which took capacity away from Longhorn."

See also:

Microsoft to axe Windows 2000 security upgrades

Pressure to upgrade growing fast  26 Jan 2005

Ten SP2 flaws leave XP users open to hackers

Millions at risk from 'silent and remote' attacks, claims security firm  11 Nov 2004

Companies still wary of XP Service Pack 2

Study claims half of IT managers expect migration 'issues'  03 Nov 2004

Q&A: Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer

We are listening to customers, says the world's biggest software company  05 Oct 2004

Microsoft takes aim at malware

Gates promises a cure for malicious software  05 Oct 2004

Ballmer: Microsoft is listening to customers

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer talks exclusively to Computing  05 Oct 2004

A modest proposal for a new Microsoft

Microsoft should get closer to customers but not curb its agressive instincts  04 Oct 2004

XP SP2: the business angle

What IT managers need to know about XP SP2  15 Sep 2004

Security

The latest wave of cyber-crimes and acts of vandalism have demonstrated once again that many systems are still vulnerable to attack.  15 Apr 2004

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