Microsoft to offer Service Pack for rights management software

Barcelona - Microsoft today gave a glimpse of its vision on how to protect the digital data of consumers and businesses. An update of its Rights Management Services (RMS) is scheduled to be available as "RMS SP1" beta in the first half of next year and will provide customers tools to deploy independent digital rights management.

Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe, Microsoft executive Rich Kaplan, announced the upcoming beta of the RMS SP1 as an answer to customers requesting more security for their data from Internet attacks.

According to Microsoft, the RMS SP1 will allow users to integrate a "low-cost enterprise rights management solution" without a connection to the Internet or another service provider. RMS’s also could be enhanced through improved authentication offered by smart cards and efficiently manage group definitions by enabling usage based on dynamic groups in Active Directory, Kaplan said.

The software will become available as download on Microsoft’s website within the first half of 2005, Kaplan said.

Microsoft also announced that the company intends to make its "Security Bulletin Advanced Notification" program publicly available to provide customers with monthly general information on security.

Starting in November, Microsoft will publish on on the second Tuesday of each month a general summary of planned security bulletins its Technet site .