Stephen Toulouse (August 1972 – October 26, 2017), also known as Stepto, was an American policy specialist and public relations manager who served as the Director of

Xbox LIVE The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

Policy and Enforcement at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. He frequently represented Microsoft and Xbox Live in various media, including on Larry Hryb's "Major Nelson Radio" Xbox-related podcast, to discuss security and policy issues. Prior to joining the Xbox team at Microsoft, Toulouse was the head of communications for security response with the Microsoft Security Response Center.

Career

Toulouse worked at Microsoft starting in April 1994. On February 3, 2012, he announced his departure from Microsoft, stating:

"... This is a positive thing. I have nothing but confidence in the future of Microsoft and specifically Xbox and Xbox Live ..."

Microsoft Security Response Center

Toulouse joined the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) in November 2002. His first exposure to communications during a security response crisis was during the spread of the SQL Slammer computer worm in January 2003, where he was asked by Security Business Unit Vice President Mike Nash to handle creating a way for affected users to determine whether or not they had a vulnerable instance of SQL Server installed. Toulouse later handled public relations for

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

outbreaks such as Blaster, Sasser, and

Zotob "The Zotob worm and several variations of it, known as Rbot.cbq, SDBot.bzh and Zotob.d, infected computers at companies such as ABC, CNN, The Associated Press, ''The New York Times'', and Caterpillar Inc." — ''Business Week'', August 16, 20 ...

, as well as the

Windows Metafile vulnerability The Windows Metafile vulnerability—also called the Metafile Image Code Execution and abbreviated MICE—is a security vulnerability in the way some versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system handled images in the Windows Metafile format ...

. Toulouse suggested in a personal blog entry in 2006 that Apple's products enjoyed good security due to their small market share and that the company would have to focus on hiring a "Security Czar" at some point. When Toulouse left the MSRC, he was praised by several notable security journalists for his candor and honesty about Microsoft's security challenges.

Xbox Live

In August 2007, Toulouse joined the Xbox Live Services group as Lead Program Manager for Enforcement, describing his role at the time as "Helping to make sure the Live experience is a safe and enjoyable one for users." Over the next years he expanded his role to include policy and enforcement for the Xbox Live and

Zune Social Zune Social was the online component of Microsoft's Zune initiative. It was a social networking website that displayed a user's most-played artists, favorite and recently played songs, a list of the users friends, what the user's friends were list ...

services, building out a team of worldwide "enforcers" to implement the rules of the Xbox Live service. Toulouse was promoted to Director for Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE in September 2009. During his time as a co-host of the Xbox podcast "Major Nelson Radio," Toulouse was the public face for the rules governing behavior on the Xbox Live service and often explained and clarified policies.

Sexuality identification on Xbox Live

In February 2009, while Toulouse was head of policy for Xbox Live, Microsoft attracted adverse attention for the gaming service's policies towards members' expression of their sexual identity. While the service allows for self-expression of sexual orientation in voice chat during games, at that time Xbox Live banned all mention of orientation — including of heterosexuality — in Gamertags and in profiles. Widespread criticism of this practice led to Toulouse publicly vowing to change the policy to allow for expression of sexual orientation. Changes announced in March 2010 permit Xbox Live members to express sexual orientation in their Gamertags and profiles. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) praised Toulouse for his work with their group in combating homophobia in online gaming.

Performances

Toulouse was a special guest at

w00tstock w00tstock was a touring variety show billed as "3 Hours of Geeks & Music". It was created in 2009 by Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage and Paul and Storm. The first shows took place in 2009 in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and continued until 2016, a ...

2.0 in Seattle, Washington and w00tstock 2.1 in Portland, Oregon. He read from "The Book of Enforcement". He also provided security for the King/Queen of the Sea for both Joco Cruise Crazy 1 (2011) and Joco Cruise Crazy 2 (2012) as the founding member of "Stepto's Army".

Death

Stephen died of an abdominal hemorrhage. His family announced that he had died on October 27, 2017.Stephen Toulouse, former head of Xbox Live’s enforcement, passes away at 45
by Owen S. Good, at

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

; published October 29, 2017; retrieved February 18, 2018

References

External links

Stephen Toulouse's gamer profileMajor Nelson Radio Podcast site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Toulouse, Stephen 1972 births 2017 deaths Microsoft employees Microsoft evangelists Deaths from gastrointestinal hemorrhage