Microsoft versus the cybercriminals

It's National Cyber Security Awareness Week. The Australian Government reminds us to keep our software up-to-date, to choose better passwords, and to stop and think before clicking on links or giving out personal information. But what's happening at the corporate level?

In Patch Monday this week, we look at some of the less-well-known work that Microsoft is doing to fight cybercriminals.

Richard Boscovich is senior attorney with Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit. He explains how the song Maga No Need Pay is being used to combat internet fraud in Nigeria. He also talks about Microsoft's Operation B49, a successful attack on the Waledac botnet earlier this year that included a novel application of the law.

We also hear from John Scarrow, general manager of Microsoft's Anti-Spam and Anti-Phishing Strategy Team. He says that socially-engineered malware now accounts for 70 per cent of the attacks that are blocked by the automated tools in Internet Explorer 8. That's some 3 million blocked downloads per day. Anti-malware software is no longer about detecting a set of known threats, Scarrow says, but about speed and agility and understanding the reputation of the download source.

Plus we have Stilgherrian's usual idiosyncratic look at the week's IT news headlines.

To leave an audio comment for Patch Monday, Skype to stilgherrian, or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.

Disclosure: Stilgherrian travelled to Redmond, Washington, as a guest of Microsoft.

Running time: 28 minutes, 22 seconds