Microsoft offers early warning initiative

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Microsoft Corp. offered Wednesday to begin alerting the world’s governments early to cyberthreats and security flaws in its attack-prone software.

Microsoft also wants to work with governments to help prevent and mitigate the damage from hacker attacks, said Giorgio Vanzini, the director of Microsoft’s government engagement team.

The announcement, in Prague on Wednesday by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, coincides with a mounting threat to the company’s global dominance from “open source” software alternatives such as the Linux operating system.

Proponents say open-source software is cheaper to run and less vulnerable to security threats because the underlying code is freely shared and government agencies and municipalities from China and Japan to Germany and France are embracing or investing in developing it.

Microsoft already provides the U.S. government with early warnings. Vanzini said extending the program aims to protect critical infrastructure given that major Internet attacks can affect national security, economic stability and public safety.

The new program intends to complement Microsoft’s existing Government Security Program, in which governments and agencies may review Microsoft’s proprietary source code for Windows operating systems and Office business software and evaluate for themselves the software’s security and ability to withstand attacks.

It supplements the advance but often vague warnings that Microsoft gives the general public.