Microsoft blog lifts lid on Redmond white hat hackers

In brief Microsoft has launched a blog that will discuss penetration testing and vulnerability testing of Microsoft code.

The hackers @ microsoft blog promises to introduce readers to some of the penetration testers employed by the software giant and give an insight into their activities.

Many companies employ constructive, or' white hat', hackers to find vulnerabilities in code and computer systems.

"At his or her core, a true hacker is someone who is curious and wants to learn how systems work," wrote Microsoft's techjunkie in the first posting on the new blog. "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."

Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet UK