Microsoft gets government's message, recognition
eWeek | at | by Mike
The federal government last week awarded a $90 million contract to Microsoft to provide the Department of Homeland Security with desktop and server software.
The move could send a signal to enterprises and other software vendors that the government is happy with Microsoft's progress in improving the security of its software. As part of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, which the Bush administration unveiled last year, officials in all agencies of the federal government are supposed to be using their purchasing power to pressure vendors into producing more secure software.
The message is meant to be: Make better software, or we'll take our business elsewhere. Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., has apparently received that message. It has begun a companywide initiative to upgrade the security of its software and has put its Windows 2000 operating system through the government's stringent Common Criteria certification process.