Microsoft is getting serious about the worm problem. While this is not really so shocking considering the fact that they are usually the target. Their work will eventually help to make sure the computer worm issue does not become so wide spread that it ends up being an issue for mobile devices as well.

Researchers at Microsoft Corp. showed off some forward-looking technologies on Wednesday, including new ways to protect systems against Internet worms, prevent hacker attacks and measure available bandwidth on home networks.

At its fifth annual TechFest, Microsoft Research presented about 150 projects at the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters. The event was expected to attract about 6,000 Microsoft employees. Its main purpose is to promote the exchange of ideas, or “tech transfers,” between Microsoft Research and product teams at the software maker.

One of the technologies on display, dubbed Vigilante, proposes a detection and protection system for Internet worms. The system would consist of “honey pot” computers connected to the Internet that would serve as bait for the worms. Once an attack was detected, the computers would analyze the attack and create alerts that included details on how to protect against the new worm. The alerts then would be pushed out to other computers, which would automatically put up shields and filter traffic to block the worm, Microsoft researchers said.

Systems receiving the Vigilante alerts would not require any action from an administrator to protect against worms, said Manuel Costa, a researcher in Microsoft’s Cambridge, England, lab. “We need a completely automatic system to detect attacks,” he said.