It looks as if Microsoft is ready to do its part to discourage cyber crimes. Microsoft plans to offer real-time feeds that partners can use to study possible cyber threats and take the proper steps to boost their defenses against these attacks.

With Microsoft’s success in tackling botnets, they have been able to collect a lot of data around the specific threats these botnets pose. By allowing the botnets to contaminate highly controlled environments, Microsoft had been able to identify and remove the harmful bots and also learn how they work.

Previously these details had not been shared, but now this data can be shared with the government and private organizations, CERTs, & ISPs. Even though the amount of attacks will not likely decrease thanks to this real-time feed, the impact of a feed like this will be great. The amount of damage from a cyber attack will likely be greatly diminished because IT security professionals will be able to more quickly answer a threat.

Another great result a real-time threat feed could have is an improvement in overall information sharing between IT security companies. For too long IT companies have been hesitant to share threat information for the fear that it might fuel more attacks. Most experts say this an unsupported fear.  The cyber criminal “community” is already sharing and gaining knowledge from each other.  It’s only logical therefore that IT security professional share as much information as possible to combat the seemingly endless barrage of new cyber threats.

The IT industry has for too long viewed the sharing of the details of a cyber attack an invitation for a copycat attack. Hopefully Microsoft’s first small steps toward a more connected IT security force will take root and that sharing data and information is a more sensible choice than secrecy.