Microsoft’s purchase of antivirus and antispam software company Sybari Software underscores the company’s recent decision to move toward selling its own security products to lock down the Windows platform.The Sybari acquisition comes one week before Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates is scheduled to make a keynote speech at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco, where he is expected to further outline Microsoft’s security strategy.“Security vendors have been making a market by pointing out vulnerabilities in Microsoft products, so the only response Microsoft can have is to provide a higher level of security in their products and change the dynamic,” said Rob Enderle, of the Enderle Group. Sybari, of East Northport, New York, makes antivirus, antispam and e-mail content filtering products for big companies, IDG News Service said. Sybari’s Antigen antivirus product is a server-based product that uses multiple antivirus engines to scan e-mail messages for viruses. Sybari gives customers a choice of antivirus engines from companies such as Sophos, Computer Associates International, and Kaspersky Labs, but the company does not have its own antivirus engine, the news service said. Sybari works with Microsoft Exchange e-mail server, as well as Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, which are used to manage and share documents and information across an organization. The purchase is not surprising, considering Sybari’s strength on Microsoft Exchange and the two companies’ close business ties, Brian Burke, an analyst at market-research company IDC, told the news service. In fact, Microsoft commonly recommended Sybari to customers looking for an antivirus product that works with Exchange, Burke said. Microsoft Chief Information Officer Ron Markezich said Microsoft’s purchase of Sybari is part of its plan to present a comprehensive security wall.“As part of our technology investment, Microsoft makes acquisitions, as well as invests internally,” Markezich said in a statement on Microsoft’s Website. “For example, our acquisition of GeCAD helped us to deliver cleaner tools to help customers recover after the Blaster, MyDoom, Sasser and Download.Ject infec-tions. It also helped us to provide the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool to more than 133 million PCs. “In December, we acquired GIANT Software Company to help give customers relief against spyware; there have been more than 5.5 million copies of the Micro-soft Windows AntiSpyware beta downloaded since it became available last month,” said Markezich. “Our acquisition of Sybari is consistent with this approach. It provides us with additional technology to help address customer concerns regarding security.” Technology Industry