Security technologies specialist, Professor Vijay Varadharajan told ZDNet Australia the first two-day meeting of Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" Academic Advisory Board had given attendees an "excellent insight" into the research and development roadmap of the company.
The Academic Advisory Board comprises 14 security and software experts, while a separate five-person team of legal experts is sitting on a privacy committee within the board.
"The objective of the board is to look at activities and advise on strategies," Professor Varadharajan said, describing it as "not just a PR stunt".
Speaking from San Jose in the United States, the professor declined to comment on the specifics of the meeting, but said the flow-on effect of bringing so many academics with security backgrounds together would be "advantageous" as it would give each of them fresh outlooks to take back to their home institutions.
Professor Varadharajaran's colleagues on the panel include experts from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Maryland and Cornell in the United States, the University of London and the University of Milan in Italy.
The get-togethers are set to become a regular event at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. "We will continue to have such meetings over the next three year period," Professor Varadharajan said.
Before coming to Australia in 1995, Professor Varadharajan headed up Hewlett-Packard's security research labs in Bristol, England, for seven years, and had also headed worldwide research at British Telecom.
Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" initiative kicked off in 2001, but this is the first time the software giant has convened such a large group of academics in a "think tank" setting. The initiative is designed to make the company's systems more secure and reliable.
