New Delhi: Computer security is one of the hottest topics of debate. The Internet offers a world of opportunities but it also opens a world of security breaches.
Hacked emails, procurring bank account or credit card numbers - these are some of the inherent pitfalls that come with the virtual convenience that are computers.
People do not register their complaints with the police yet and even when they do, to trace a net cheat could be a long, ardous process for the Cyber Crime Cell.
With the growing number of computer and Internet users all over the world, keeping your computer information yours (unless you explicitly give it to someone else) has become the need of the hour.
To prevent hacking and cheating on the Internet, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. on Tuesday announced a unique initiative called Security Shootout.
The initiative is aimed at promoting secure code writing amongst Indian developers.
The 650,000 strong developer community in India will test their skills at writing a secure code and will be pitted against the best in the country.
Security Shootout is part of Microsoft's ongoing security mobilization efforts, under which it works closely with partners and customers to promote software security.
Through this initiative, Microsoft is also making an extensive collection of security resources available to developers, such as webcasts, blogs, articles, white papers and books.
The Security Shootout comprises of three online rounds.
Participants need to answer 30 questions in the first round. The 1000 best answers will move on to stage two where they will need to answer 30 more questions.
Only 100 participants will be selected for the final round. They will be given an application with vulnerabilities built in that will need to identify and neutralise.
In the offing are over 7,500 prizes and the developer with the best secure coding skills will get the grand prize - a customized Scorpio Passion.
Other prizes include Toshiba Tecra M4 laptops for the runner ups and Pocket PC's and 80GB USB 2.0 powered external hard disk drives.
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Also, the top 500 participants will get security certification vouchers, which will help them hone their code development skills over a long term.
Says Customer and Partner Experience Microsoft India, Sanjiv Mathur, "Seventy per cent of all enterprise security vulnerabilities are at the software applications stage. According to research conducted by Microsoft, 64 per cent of in-house enterprise software developers agree that they lack the confidence to write secure applications. Based on these facts, it is evident that there is an urgent need to train developers on how to write secure code."
"The Microsoft Security Shootout is an initiative designed to provide developers with the opportunity to build and sharpen their skills to develop secure code, and addresses a critical industry need," he added.
With this initiative, Microsoft has made another significant investment in the area of security.
Earlier, the company had initiated the Trustworthy Computing initiative. Under this came three specific areas -
- Technology investments, wherein it is committed to providing customers and users with the most secure products by eliminating all security vulnerabilities before a product ships.
- Prescriptive Guidance, which involves educating and empowering people.
- Industry partnerships, under which Microsoft is working with the government and industry to evolve security laws and standards.
For further details and registration, developers need to log onto www.securityshootout.com before 19th April 2006.
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