Microsoft enters the anti-virus/spyware market
 

I don't know how to feel about this. Microsoft make good products, if a little bloaty, but I hate to see them get their fingers into everything.

I can't really understand this strategy either. On one hand they're fighting against anti-trust, anti-monoply legal cases, yet on another they're trying to take over the world...

Mr Mephisto

:rolleyes: In the Microsoft dictionary, irony means "kind of like iron."

This made me laugh and laugh


Mr Mephisto

This product and MS's supporting processes have yet to be tested in the wild. Like they said, don't throw out your f-prot licenses for awhile.

Coming out with A/V serves two purposes: It covers their backs from public frustration over Windows vulnerability; it provides a low-threat, test-entry into a product line with mandatory subscriptions. The first reason justifies the second.

MS was already fully staffed for malware forensics. GeCAD gave them the engine. This is just them finally deciding there's enough market pressure to make their entry into this market safe versus being strung up for abusing their monopoly.

Everyone knew this was coming but I doubt Symantec & friends are feeling comfortable.

Kinda makes me wonder. Would they leave their operating system vulnerable to viruses and spyware to avoid losing sales of their security system. Seems to me there could be a little conflict there.

It seems appropriate since most malware is targeted toward Microsoft products. Hopefully the antivirus software won't need to be updated every week to protect it from an attack.

That makes sense. Make bad products that people pay money for, then charge people more moneyfor a program to fix them.

Actually I'm sure many other products are just as bad as microsoft, the only difference is that a lot of people hate microsoft. That is why they are targeted so often.

Anybody ever wonder if microsoft secretly employs these hackers that target their products just so they can do things to charge people more money? (kinda along the same train of thought as crewsor)

Windows' vulnerability largely stems from its structure & age. It's monolithic, and it contains much legacy code & logic written for an earlier world of threats. The monolithic design makes it tough to improve one piece without creating another opening so we roll along with updates and updates for updates. They've improved their default configurations and put up walls, especially with SP2, but the whole recipe is dangerous. With luck their efforts on Longhorn will produce results.

The point about this product being a target for attackers is spot on. It's likely this will be another IE with rapid-fire security updates, if only because it's going to be the most common AV product. Once every system has a default AV product installed that's where the attackers must start to have any chance of success.

As for MS intentionally creating openings in their code, you can be sure they'd rather not have the problem in the first place. "Vulnerability" has been a big rock in their shoe for a long time. Not to say we won't hear more about the conflict of interest every time an obvious hole is discovered. :)

I was going to ask why they don't simply build this kind of capability directly into the OS itself, rather than offering another bolt-on solution.

But I guess that's exactly what they're doing with Longhorn.

Anyone know when that's due?


Mr Mephisto

I heard 2006. They'll probably rush it out for 2005 with a boat load of problems like many other releases. I think if they add in the antivirus program they will get sued like crazy by all the antivirus companies.

Longhorn likely will be out in '07

That being said, expect Windows longhorn Beta1 in March 05

Betas have been leaked already, I thought.

I doubt that you will see a good working beta any time this year. MS has pulled off a large amount of new product programms to help with security in already existing Windows OS'.

Below is an exerpt I pulled from an article:

As much as I hate to admit it, I just installed the Microsoft spyware tool and was impressed. It has some nice features, an easy to use interface and worked great. It found a couple of files Spybot and ad-aware had missed. Their beta version expires July 1 and then will be fee based I believe. I don't think I like it enough to pay for it with the free programs that are available though.

I had the same impressions and results.

I would recommend it to people like my parents, wife's mother and our oldest son and his wife since they are not computer handy. I could see less calling me for how-to's on how to use other programs like Spybot or Ad-Aware.

I'll keep running the beta but won't keep it if they start charging in July.

I just ran the beta and it came up with 5 more items then my spyBot program did. Looks pretty good so far.

Here's a test comparison between MS, Ad-Aware and S&D.

I tried out the MS spyware proggie and I love it. Others mostly feel the same way. Two thumbs up so far. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

The MS spyware program is basically just Giant Antispyware renamed isn't it? Now, Giant Antispyware was a really good program. Let's hope MS doesn't screw it up.