Microsoft advocating IT security 'health checks'

2010-03-03

'Health checks' could be an ideal way to prevent PCs from suffering damaging IT intrusions, it was suggested today (March 3rd).

Steve Lipner, senior director of security engineering strategy at Microsoft, believes that a healthcare model could be applied to cyberspace to tackle the threat of malware and viruses.

As part of the system, non-corporate computer users would have to take their machines for special screenings before they were able to connect to the internet, Computer Weekly reports.

"Many corporate computers are scanned for malware before they are allowed to connect remotely to internal networks," Mr Lipner told the news provider.

"But the same is not true for most other computers that connect to the internet."

Mr Lipner added that the healthcare model is helpful because malware is a "disease" which can affect the entire online community, rather than just one computer.

The concept was originally put forward by Scott Charney, corporate vice-president of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group, during his keynote speech at the recent RSA Conference 2010.

According to Finnish IT security firm F-Secure, more malware emerged in 2007 than in the previous 20 years put together.

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