http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190500679 

By Gregg Keizer 
TechWeb 
July 18, 2006

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced it was acquiring privately owned 
Winternals Software, an Austin, Texas developer of recovery and data 
protection tools, and the host of the well-known Sysinternals free 
toolset.

Winternals co-founder Mark Russinovich will join Microsoft's Platforms and 
Services group as a technical fellow, the Redmond, Wash. giant said in a 
press release. Bryce Cogswell, the company's other co-founder, will head 
to Microsoft's Core Operating Systems division as a software architect.

"I've had my eye on Mark for some time," said Jim Allchin, co-president of 
the Windows team, in a statement. "The work he and Bryce have completed in 
system recovery and data protection illustrates the depth of thinking and 
skill they will bring to future versions of Windows."

Although the Winternals commercial software -- including Protection 
Manager and Recovery Manager -- and the free-of-charge Sysinternals tools 
are well-known, Russinovich is most famous as the discoverer of a rootkit 
tucked inside Sony BMG audio CDs. His 2005 find raised a firestorm of 
protest against Sony BMG, led to several court cases, and was pegged as a 
reason for a slowdown in CD sales.

In a Tuesday blog entry, Russinovich admitted he didn't yet know how the 
Winternals and Sysinternals software and technologies would be integrated 
into Windows.

"Microsoft is still evaluating the best way to leverage the many different 
technologies that have been developed by Winternals," he wrote. "Some will 
find their ways into existing Microsoft products or Windows itself and 
others will continue on as Microsoft-branded products."

The Sysinternals Web site will remain as is for the time being, 
Russinovich said, and when Microsoft eventually decides how to integrate 
it with existing online content, the tools will continue to be free to 
download.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.


_________________________________
Attend the Black Hat Briefings and
Training, Las Vegas July 29 - August 3
2,500+ international security experts from 40 nations,
10 tracks, no vendor pitches.
www.blackhat.com