Microsoft unleashes five service packs for enterprise security wares

Frenzy of activity could be in preparation for Microsoft's appearance at the annual Black Hat security conference later this month

In the past week, Microsoft has unleashed five service packs for its enterprise-class security software. These service packs include the beta 2 of its identity management framework "Geneva," the SP3 of Forefront Security for SharePoint, the SP2 of Forefront Security for Exchange Server, and trial versions of Antigen Spam Manager for Exchange and Antigen for SMTP Gateways.

All of this activity comes in addition to the much-publicized release of the beta of its freebie consumer anti-malware software, Microsoft Security Essentials. Additionally, during the past week, Microsoft released seven technical documentation papers offering advice on everything from how to configure the AppLocker feature in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to a master blueprint for rolling out enterprise security.

[ Learn how to secure your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and newsletter, both from InfoWorld. |  And discover what's new in business applications with InfoWorld's Technology: Applications newsletter. ]

Could the frenzy of activity be in preparation for Microsoft's appearance at the annual Black Hat security conference, to be held in Las Vegas July 25-30?

Of this large group of new software releases, one of the more interesting downloads is the Beta 2 of "Geneva." This release aims to improve the deployment of the Geneva platform for the enterprise with new features like Group Policy-driven provisioning of Information Cards or the administrative policy of card usage. It has also improved support for X.509 certificate credentials in Information Cards.

Also of interest is the new declaration Microsoft made this week that its Forefront security wares will standardize on a set of five anti-malware engines moving forward. Forefront had been using 10 anti-malware engines, but as of December 1, it will retire five and stick with anti-virus engines made by Authentium, Kaspersky, Microsoft, Norman, and VirusBuster. It will yank out engines made by CA, Sophos, AhnLab, Cloudmark, and MailFilters.

According to the Microsoft Forefront blog, "Tests performed quarterly by the independent AV-Test.org group have shown that the multi-engine set for Forefront security products rates highest in response times for 'in the wild' viruses and variants. We have found that having multiple engines consistently provides the highest detection rates against the competition with average response time of 3-6 hours for new viruses versus competitive single-engine solutions average response times are more than 2-9 days (as noted in recent AV-Test.org data.)"