Microsoft to fund university virus testing course
Reuters | at | by Mike
Microsoft has stepped up its ties to academia, pledging the funding and know-how to train students at the University of Leeds to write bug-free software, the company said on Friday. The announcement comes amid repeated complaints by some security experts that Microsoft's ubiquitous software programs, a favorite target for hackers and virus writers, remain vulnerable to intrusion.
A year ago Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, launched an initiative called "Trustworthy Computing," to improve the security of its programs ranging from Windows operating systems to computer server applications. In January, though, a tenacious computer worm called "SQL Slammer" attacked computer servers running on Microsoft software, triggering a series of Internet outages and system breakdowns that drew fresh ire from the security industry.