Microsoft, Cisco join on security

Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. will make their security architectures interoperable to keep out viruses, worms and other network threats, the two companies have announced.

Cisco's Network Admission Control program will share application programming interfaces and protocols with Microsoft's Network Access Protection architecture to gauge the policy compliance of PCs, servers and handheld computers joining or attempting to access a network.

Cisco has a similar interoperability venture with IBM Corp., which sells the Tivoli Compliance Manager.