Microsoft asks RSA's help securing its server software

By Bernard Cole
iApplianceWeb
(10/23/02, 01:12:10 PM EDT)

Redmond, Wa. --- Inundated with almost weekly break-ins to its Windows and .NET netcentric software products ranging from emails, browsers and web services, Microsoft Corp. has entered into a long term agreement with RSA Security Inc. to beef up its security protocols.

The first initiatives to emerge from the agreement will center on Microsoft's licensing of RSA Security's RSA SecurID® two-factor authentication software and RSA Security's development of an RSA SecurID Software Token for the Microsoft Windows Pocket PC.

“Working closely with other vendors in the security community is a critical component in making Trustworthy Computing a reality for our customers,” said Craig Mundie, Chief Technical Officer and senior vice president of advanced strategies and policy at Microsoft.

Providing a potential goldmine of contacts for RSA Security, one aspect of the agreement involves the encryption specialist to work with the thousands of organizations worldwide which provide software for or are dependent on Microsoft's range of software products.

A key aspect of the agreement is the licensing by RSA Security to Microsoft of the ACE/Agent component of the RSA SecurID two-factor authentication software, allowing Microsoft the option of directly integrating the RSA SecurID agent into Microsoft applications. The first Microsoft product to use this capability will be Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000. The functionality will ship in an upcoming set of ISA Server product enhancements.

RSA Security has also developed a version of the RSA SecurID Software Token for the Windows Pocket PC 2002 software platform. This will allow these small footprint personal computing handheld iappliances to function as RSA SecurID authenticators, thus eliminating the need for users to carry separate hardware tokens. Used in conjunction with RSA ACE/Server authentication management software, RSA SecurID authenticators allow positive identification of users and prevents unauthorized access to networks and systems.

Earlier this year RSA Security was one of the first companies to support the Microsoft's submission of WS-Security to the OASIS standards organization. This is a set of SOAP extensions that supports, integrates and unifies several popular security models, mechanisms and technologies, allowing a variety of systems to interoperate in a platform- and language-neutral manner in a secure Web services context.

RSA's two-factor SecurID algorithm requires users to identify themselves with two unique factors - something they know, such as a password, and something they have, such as a token - before they are granted access.

The Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2000 is Microsoft's entry into the enterprise firewall and Web cache server business segment aimed at providing controlled, secure and fast Internet access for their organization. Based on the Windows 2000 platform, ISA Server is part of the Microsoft Windows .NET Platform.

Go to http://www.microsoft.com/ISAServer for more information on Microsoft's ISA Server. And for more information on RSA Security's two factor algorithm and other encryption products go to www.rsasecurity.com.

For more information about the issues, products and technologies in this story, go to the  iAppliance Web Views  page and call up the associatively-linked XML/Java Web map of the iApplianceWeb site and search for product information since the beginning of 2002.

For technical article coverage, go to EETimes In Focus maps on the same Web page and browse or quickly search for all articles on a particular topic since the beginning of 1998.

These Web Maps can be browsed by date, by category, by title, or by keyword, with results displayed instantly either as a list of possible hits or with the specific Web page.