US Software giant Microsoft recently took the wraps off its hyper-ambitious project, code-named Palladium, to design new hardware and software that could better guarantee the security of user data.

According to the Los Angeles Times published on Monday, Microsoft wanted to redesign the computer so that it will have built-in security and privacy functions, including some etched onto special chips to be made by Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

The project is supposed to create a platform on which Microsoft and other developers could write all sorts of new software applications for managing security, privacy, copyrights and even spam.

Mario Juarez, project manager of Microsoft, said that the idea is to create a virtual vault inside the Windows operating system, where each user could create personal "safe-deposit boxes" for storing encrypted information. The information would be accessible only to those software programs, Web sites and people whom the computer recognized as being authorized to see it.

However, some technologists noted that Microsoft is infamous for releasing software riddled with huge, hacker-friendly holes.

"Why should we trust them that this will be any different?" said Bruce Schneier, a cryptography specialist who wrote the book Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World.

(People's Daily July 2, 2002)