Microsoft to give Patch Tuesday details to gov't agencies

Microsoft has launched a pilot programme for governments and critical infrastructure providers to gain access to in-depth technical information about operating system patches before they are released on the second Tuesday of each month.

Microsoft currently provides security vendors such as Kaspersky, McAfee and Symantec with some of this information, but not all of it. Finer details of a vulnerability don't normally get disclosed to the vendors.

"One thing we started noticing was that industry and third-party software protection providers ... aren't the only defenders out there," said Microsoft Security Response Centre's senior security program manager lead Steve Adegbite, speaking at the AusCERT 2010 security conference in Queensland, Australia. "There are actually national [Computer Emergency Response Teams] and there are national agencies and entities ... what about them?"

For more on this story, see Microsoft reveals govt patch previews on ZDNet Australia.