Microsoft’s Gates briefs senators on high-tech subjects

Thursday, June 26, 2003 | 9:19 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- Technology security is intertwined with national security, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates told Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., and several other senators Wednesday.

Gates and the lawmakers discussed a wide range of high-tech issues, including unwanted e-mail and homeland security during an hour-long meeting in the Capitol.

Gates and the lawmakers discussed Microsoft software designed to make computers safer from criminals and terrorists and ultimately, from "spammers," the senders of unwanted e-mail, Ensign said.

Gates has said Microsoft has a new anti-spam technology group and that the company is working on a system that better identifies e-mail senders, including hard-to-trace spammers. That kind of technology can be applied to the fight against both terrorists and spammers, Ensign said after the meeting.

Gates declined to answer Sun questions after his meeting with the senators, saying only that tackling spam is "an important thing for Microsoft.

At a technology conference earlier in the day, Gates said Internet crime is a "global threat and it requires a global response.

"We must build higher walls and stronger vaults, and government must continue to step up the priority given to this kind of crime while protecting the privacy of consumers," he said.

Gates said anti-spam efforts were a good example of industry and government should work together on security measures.

The senators and Gates also discussed the issue of companies being required to report stock options as expenses, which Ensign and Gates both oppose. Ensign has introduced a bill that would delay the proposed mandatory expensing of stock options for at least three years.

Gates did not really lobby the lawmakers, however. He spent most of the meeting answering questions, Ensign said.

Ensign is chairman of the Senate's High Tech Task Force, a group of Republican senators that meets with high-tech industry leaders.

Sun reporter

Benjamin Grove and the Associated Press contributed to this article.