In his keynote today at the Microsoft� Worldwide Partner Conference, Mike Nash, corporate vice president for Security Business and Technology Unit at Microsoft Corp., announced support from more than 25 industry partners for its Network Access Protection, an extensible standards-based technology that will enable users to more securely access their corporate network. In addition to enhancing the security for user access, the Network Access Protection technology will provide a more secure solution designed to reduce the complexity of network access for IT administrators. Available in an update release (code-named "R2") of Windows Server (TM) 2003, Network Access Protection technology will deliver a uniform method for detecting the "health state" of a client attempting to connect to a network, restricting the access until compliance to policy is validated and updating the client to current security policy levels.

"IT administrators have told us that managing user access to their corporate resources in a safe and secure manner is a major concern," Nash said. "Network Access Protection has garnered broad industry support because it will help customers lower the cost of access management while simultaneously providing them with more control."