Microsoft Delays Sterling Security Suite

Microsoft admits that its security suite, named Stirling, won't be available until the fourth quarter, with some components not ready until next year.

Stirling, the integrated security suite that will bring together a number of elements, now won’t be available until the fourth quarter of this year, Microsoft has admitted.

In a blog posting, Microsoft’s Identity and Security team – the group behind Stirling – said that some components (Forefront Server Security for Exchange and Threat Management Gateway) would be available by year’s end, but that the Stirling management console, Forefront Client Security 2.0 and Forefront Security for SharePoint won’t be available until the first half of next year.

The first Stirling public beta was made available last month, but there’s another and a release candidate yet to come before the final version is released.

The delay is due to greater development in the Dynamic Signature Service, which will “help deliver more comprehensive endpoint protection for zero day attacks”. It will also improve the system’s interopability with third-party solutions.

“One of the top customer requests was adding interoperability with third party security solutions. In response, we plan to increase our focus on one of the unique features of “Stirling”, Security Assessment Sharing (SAS.) SAS correlates security events from different Forefront products and third party solutions, enabling administrators to quickly investigate and remediate security events. We will provide information about interoperability partners in the near future.”

“Additionally, we are investing significantly in a behavior-based technology called Dynamic Signature Service to help deliver more comprehensive endpoint protection for zero day attacks. This will complement the "Stirling" suite’s advanced heuristics, dynamic translation and real time application scanning for kernel level malware with a sophisticated approach to on-demand threat mitigation.”