Microsoft Corp. said today that it is developing add-on security technology for its forthcoming Windows Server 2003 operating system software that will allow organizations to implement rights-management protections on corporate documents such as e-mail messages and data files.

The Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) will be able to enforce protection policies by controlling which users can access specific content and what access rights they are granted. Companies will, for example, be able to restrict content copying, forwarding and printing in applications such as portal, e-mail and word-processing software.

"What this really is about is having customers trust their platform more when they're using it to manage sensitive internal business information such as financial reports and business plans inside the organization," said Mike Nash, vice president of Microsoft's Security Business Unit.

The rights management features will be built into the Office 2003 versions of the Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook applications, according to Amy Carroll, group manager of Microsoft's Windows Trusted Platform Technologies group.

However, only users of Microsoft's most recent products will be able to fully take advantage of the technology. RMS relies on the proposed Extensible Rights Markup Language (XrML) standard, an XML-based language that is heavily backed by Microsoft but has yet to attract broad industry support. While Office 2003, Microsoft's Office update scheduled for mid-2003, supports XrML and will work with RMS, older versions of Microsoft Office, including the currently available Office XP, won't work with the technology.

CNET NEWS.COM - Crypto research under fire in U.K. suit.

A lawsuit over possibly fraudulent withdrawals from cash machines in London could gag academic research into the vulnerabilities of banks' cryptographic systems.

South Africa's branch of Citibank, which is investigating about $80,000 in disputed withdrawals, has asked London's High Court of Justice to take testimony starting on March 3 from a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge. The researchers fear that Citibank's proposed secrecy order would restrict future explorations into bank security systems.

"The background is that my student Mike Bond has discovered some really horrendous vulnerabilities in the cryptographic equipment commonly used to protect the PINs used to identify customers to cash machines," Ross Anderson, a Cambridge faculty member, said in a post to a U.K. encryption mailing list this week. "It now looks like some of these vulnerabilities have also been discovered by the bad guys. Our courts and regulators should make the banks fix their systems, rather than just lying about security and dumping the costs on the customers."

Press Release (may contain unnecessary superlatives, corporate bias) - Forming a "Think Tank" on Trustworthy Computing.

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 20, 2003 -- The academic experts assembled at the Microsoft campus today have their work cut out for them. As members of the new Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Academic Advisory Board, they've been asked to give scrutiny and advice on an ambitious company-wide initiative that aims to provide safe, private and reliable computing experiences for everyone.

To learn the why and what-for behind the group and its first two-day meeting, PressPass convened a group of its own. Joining the roundtable discussion are David Ladd, manager of external research programs for Trustworthy Computing at Microsoft Research, and two advisory board members, Dr. Fred B. Schneider, a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and Dr. Neeraj Suri, a professor at TU Darmstadt University in Darmstadt, Germany, near Frankfurt.

Slashdot | From DRM to Rights Management Services.

miladus writes "Microsoft has formed an academic Think Tank on Trustworthy Computing. The Academic Board is to advise Microsoft on 'security, privacy and reliability enhancements in[...] products and technologies so that Microsoft can obtain critical feedback on product and policy issues related to its Trustworthy Computing.' An interview with two members of the board is an interesting read, especially concerning the global implications of privacy. Of note, is the absence of DRM discussion. But DRM shows up as 'Rights Management Services' in the promised Widows Rights Management Services to be released later this year. it will deliver a 'platform-based approach to persistent policy rights for Web content and sensitive corporate documents of all types'"

BBC NEWS | Technology | Anti-terror computer network 'in disarray'. Work on a computer network designed by the UK Government to combat terror threats has stalled indefinitely, say reports. The breakdown of the system is due to technical problems and internal arguments over funding and management, according to e-mail publication, E-Government Bulletin.

[ ... ]

Developed by the Cabinet Office's Civil Contingency Secretariat, it was originally due to go live in March 2002.

Local government planners involved in the project have told E-Government Bulletin that the project was "a disaster" from the start, slow and difficult to use.

[ ... ]

He is quoted as saying that the project was undergoing a period of reorganisation.

"It is not entirely killed off," he said.

The Cabinet Office told BBC News Online that technology had moved on since the project was launched and that faster and better systems were available from departments such as the Met Office.