Microsoft today announced Microsoft Client Protection, a new security product that protects business desktops, laptops and file servers from emerging threats such as spyware and rootkits, as well as viruses and other traditional attacks.

The press release takes the form of a Q&A interview with Microsoft's Mike Nash. Here's the description of the new offering fro the interview:

PressPass: What specific features are included in Microsoft Client Protection and how do they work?

Nash: Microsoft Client Protection combines strong anti-spyware tools, comprehensive virus protection and centralized management. These protection technologies will be backed by a global malware-research system. This consists of ongoing security research that is powered by volumes of data collected at Microsoft and submitted through the community — combined with advanced automated analysis techniques — to help discover new threats faster. We anticipate being able to share additional details on the technology in the coming months — our first goal is to get the limited beta out to customers.

Microsoft also announced the SecureIT Alliance. Founding members include: Altiris Inc., Aventail Corp., BindView Corp., Centrify Corp., Citrix Systems Inc., Computer Associates International Inc., Configuresoft Inc., e-Security Inc., F5 Networks Inc., Forum Systems Inc., F-Secure Corp., FullArmor Corp., LANDesk Software Ltd., McAfee, Inc., Microsoft Corp., Net Report, NetIQ Corp., Network Intelligence Corp., Panda Software, Ping Identity Corp., Quest Software Inc., RSA Security Inc., Symantec Corp., Trend Micro Inc., Utimaco Safeware AG, VeriSign Inc., Voltage Security Inc., Vormetric Inc. and Websense Inc.

"Security is an industry problem," says Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Security Business & Technology Unit. "Only the industry working together can solve threats to security. We're reaching out to all our industry partners to create an alliance to make sure that we have a great dialogue so that both they and Microsoft can build great products. The point of the SecureIT Alliance is to work with our industry partner community to create the best solutions possible. Our customers will benefit because they'll get better security products from a wide range of vendors. And our industry partners will benefit, too, because they'll get better information in technical depth into integrating with our platform."