Microsoft announced on Tuesday that the software giant had acquired Winternals Software, a maker of system recovery and data protection tools, for an undisclosed price.

Founded by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell in 1996, the company recently gained notoriety for discovering the rootkit-like behavior of the XCP copy protection scheme used by Sony BMG to protect the music data on more than 50 CD albums. (The issue was also independently discovered by antivirus firm F-Secure.) The duo's knowledge of the Windows operating system was a key reason behind the buy, according to Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's platforms and services division.

"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," Allchin said in the statement announcing the deal. "The addition of their deep kernel-level expertise to our existing strong talent will help provide us with the edge we need to continue to raise the quality and functionality bar for Windows on both the client and the server."

Winternals also discovered a design flaw in Symantec's Norton SystemWorks software that could be used to hide malicious code. (An issue, again, also found independently by F-Secure.) Symantec, which owns SecurityFocus,fixed the issue in January.

Russinovich will be joining the Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division as a Technical Fellow, and Cogswell will become a software architect in the company's Core Operating Systems Division. The small group of Technical Fellows at Microsoft are responsible for developing and driving the software giant's technology plans.