Microsoft's cup of woes seems to be full. After the company's servers, last week was attacked by an e-mail worm called MyDoom, Microsoft on Friday, admitted that a portion of highly confidential source code for its Windows operating system had been leaked and posted on the Internet.
The leak of the code to the Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 operating systems, extensively used by millions of homes and businesses across the globe, could leave users vulnerable to attacks from hackers.
There is an even greater danger. The leak could give its competitors an edge over Microsoft, which has always maintained strict security over the coding.
Source code is the intellectual property and lifeblood of any software company, because it is the basic language used to create software programs.
Microsoft has shared its source code only with close partners and threatened legal action if any of it is leaked.
This is the second security related incident at Microsoft this week. The software giant had, earlier this week, admitted that there were serious security flaws in its latest edition of Windows, XP, which is popular with home users.
To counter this Microsoft released a software upgrade, on its website, and urged all users to download it and secure their machines against hackers.
In a statement Microsoft said, "It's illegal for third parties to post Microsoft source code, and we take such activity very seriously. We are currently investigating these postings, and are working with the appropriate law enforcement authorities.
"At this point, it does not appear that this is the result of any breach of Microsoft's corporate network or internal security. At this time, there is no known impact on customers. We will continue to monitor the situation."
