During his keynote, Gates demonstrated the smart card pilot program currently underway on Microsoft's campus. Gates showed the audience how some employees are using Windows Powered Smart Cards to access buildings and securely log into their computers. Smart cards illustrate the importance of adding two-factor authentication to further secure a corporate network environment. Last spring, Gates had called on the industry to begin the move away from passwords as the sole form of authentication, and today Gates announced that Microsoft had moved out of its pilot phase and would begin the deployment of smart cards in the Microsoft corporate network in the coming year. Finally, Gates outlined some of the work Microsoft is doing to provide software developers around the world with better tools to achieve the goal of designing and shipping secure software.
NET is scheduled to ship next year.
SafeNet 2000 will continue over the next two days, charging panelists and working groups with the development of best practices and standards of care for information protection. Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing.