Dom

LONDON--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says the task of trying to stay one step ahead of virus writers and hackers is a never-ending battle.

Speaking at a gathering of U.K. press, Ballmer said Microsoft's "trustworthy computing" effort is far more than just a one-off initiative.

"We will be working on 'trustworthy computing' for the rest of my days at Microsoft, which I hope are many. There are bad people out there in cyberspace, and they are not going to go away. We are going to have to be vigilant. That's going to last for the duration," he said.

But despite the ongoing rounds of new security vulnerabilities and virus alerts, Ballmer said he believes the situation has improved greatly and can only get better.

"It's not like five or six years ago viruses didn't exist. More damage has been done in other periods of time (than today). The last 12 months was a better 12 months by a margin. I do believe in the next two to three years we'll get good enough and customers' practice of implementation will get good enough," he said.

Ballmer admitted that getting it wrong is not an option for Microsoft. "Security is the potential downside for the business. Do people have enough faith? That's why we made security job one priority at Microsoft."

Microsoft and Ballmer have said that the company will look at new markets and new areas of innovation for future growth. One area that analysts and industry watchers have tipped is the antivirus and firewall market, possibly with the acquisition of one of the big players such as McAfee.

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Source: c|net