Microsoft forms security think tank

"If you look at corporations, most of what they do is development or applied research that's tightly wrapped around a product line. There's not a lot of 'Let's randomly try good ideas and see what happens.' These academics get a whole fresh crop of graduate students in each year, some of those students have good ideas," Pescatore said.

In return for their time, ideas and advice, the academics and the universities they represent get visibility and, possibly, grant money from Microsoft to help fund their research.

"There's a lot of quid pro quo...There's so much of this that goes on between industry and academia," Pescatore said.

While some will surely complain that their presence on the Advisory Board undermines the independence and credibility of the academics, Pescatore said that the board's work could end up benefitting consumers.

"The best possible outcome is that Microsoft begins to incorporate into their development  process new ways of making code more secure and if [the advisory board] in any way helps Microsoft change their culture to help systems interoperate rather than just steamrolling [competing operating systems]," Pescatore said.

Microsoft plans to have the board meet twice a year for at least the next three years, though the board's tenure could last longer than that, according to a statement by Ladd.

While optimistic that the advisory board will infuse new ideas into Microsoft's development processes, Pescatore said that he was doubtful the board will soften the company's "take no prisoners" approach to competition.

"I don't think the advisory board will result in Microsoft saying 'We are the world, let's all hold hands,' versus them saying 'Let's hope Windows kills Unix,"' Pescatore said.