Microsoft Launches Hacker Blog

Posted on September 1, 2007

Computerworld reports that Microsoft has launched a new hackers' blog called hackers @ Microsoft. The blog discusses the work that Microsoft's white hat hackers are doing. The first post from a Microsoft blogger named techjunkie explains more.

Welcome to a new blog from Microsoft. The focus of this blog is likely to be a little different from most other blogs you'll see on blogs.msdn.com. Microsoft employs some of the best hackers in the world and actively recruits them and develops them. They work on all kinds of projects, whether it be in development, research, testing, management and of course security. Of course, there is controversy even in the word "hacker" but I don't think that should stop us from using it in the manner I think is the most appropriate. At his or her core, a true hacker is someone who is curious and wants to learn how systems work. This can and of course at Microsoft is done in an ethical, legal manner. We employ "white hat hackers" who spend their time pentesting and code reviewing applications and software looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities so that others don't once we've released that code into the wild. We employ many many smart testers who know more about some of our software then perhaps the architects who designed it. We also employ some of the top researchers in their industry, dedicated people working on the bleeding edge of whats going to be common place in the next 5 or 10 years of computing. So yes, Microsoft does have hackers, and its time to introduce you to some of them and show you what it is, exactly that they do.

This blog will definitely receieve some attention. Microsoft has more hackers after them then probably any other tech company so it is wise that they are employing some white hat hackers to find vulnerabilities in Microsoft software before the spammers and malware developers do.