Microsoft has long been criticized about the number of security issues that its applications and its operating systems have introduced to the enterprise. While much of this criticism is well founded, an equal share goes simply to its popularity. With its latest operating system, Windows Vista, the software giant is indicating that it is taking a serious security stance.

Start Secure to End Secure

To ensure that Vista delivers on its security promises, Microsoft has gone back to basics with its coding efforts, instituting a "secure by design" mantra. This process ensures that security is an integral part of the design and development phase, not a process performed after development is completed. Essentially, by working security into development, flaws don't have to be found and fixed – they're simply not created in the first place.

Windows Service Hardening is the second concept that has been introduced to ensure that the software starts and stays secure. With this, the various processes running in the kernel operate in a much more constrained manner in terms of their ability to interact with each other. Building these logical boundaries into the kernel has made it much more difficult for a running process to execute unexpected commands that could lead to security...