Well, this is a strange day for me:

Today in Bern we had the biggest launch ever in Microsoft's history: We launched Windows Vista and Office 2007 for General Availability - yes, you can now get one at your local store! It is there.

So time to say "hello"!

Additionally it is time for me to say goodbye: This was my last big event for Microsoft Switzerland as I am taking over the responsibility for the whole region as of February 1st. The region is Europe, Middle East and Africa. In parallel, I am more than happy to hand over my responsibilities in Switzerland to Urs P. Küderli. Please join me congratulating him for his new challenge as a Chief Security Advisor for Microsoft Switzerland.

If you want to stay in contact, it is easy: My mail address is the same (roger.halbheer@microsoft.com) and my (new) bolg is http://blogs.technet.com/rhalbheer 

Roger

"One of the most basic conundrums in computer security is the constant trade-off between security and usability.  At the end of the day, if security is too complicated to use, then it simply won't be used.  Even if a feature offers a good level of security protections, if it is complicated or has poor usability it will likely be disabled by the end-user or network administrator, which doesn't benefit anyone..." - Jim Allchin

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/23/security-features-vs-convenience.aspx

Very good and informative blog post!

Urs

A pretty interesting document in my opinion. The interesting thing is, we are stating that "this guide is for IT Professionals in the United States" - well, it is publicly available and interesting for everybody involved in forensics.

You can download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/guidance/disasterrecovery/computer_investigation/default.mspx

Roger

This paper reviews the performance of six counter-forensic tools and highlight operational shortfalls that could permit the recovery of significant evidentiary data. In addition, each tool creates a distinct operational fingerprint that an analyst may use to identify the application used and, thus, guide the search for residual data.

http://www.dfrws.org/2005/proceedings/geiger_couterforensics.pdf

Urs

Very interesting and an amazing result... ;-)
Urs

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~nrp3d/papers/computers_and_security-net-java.pdf