Microsoft To Offer Virus Defense

FridayBob writes "According to the New York Times, Microsoft plans to enter the consumer antivirus business with a subscription service next year. Most of us will remember Microsoft's assimilation of RAV Antivirus from GeCAD Software of Romania in 2003." From the article: "Microsoft plans to expand the service beyond its 60,000 employees this summer and offer an open trial for consumers this fall. No date has been set for a commercial introduction, but the executive in charge of the new business said it would ultimately be offered as an annual service by subscription."

Comments

This isn't the first time

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Microsoft used to ship a licensed copy of [then] Central Point Software's Anti-Virus program with MS-DOS 6.0. They stopped shipping anti-virus software with the release of Windows 95, however. I'm surprsied it's taken them this long to start shipping an anti-virus tool with their OS again.

Re:It should be part of the OS!

[Zone-MR]

TCPA = Trusted Computing Platform Alliance

Essentially, a TCPA compatible computer will refuse to run all code which hasn't been pre-approved by some "trusted" organisation. This would make not-for-profit software development almost impossible.

And yes, except for a few cases like blaster, viruses don't exploit a vulnerability in the OS. They exploit human stupidity and naivity. An OS which isn't "vulnerable" to viruses is an OS which doesn't obey the user and let them run arbitary programs. Such an OS is usless.

Also try AVAST!

[dsginter]

Avast Home Edition - Free for personal use. This stuff works like magic. You *do* have to register in order to get a registration code but it is definitely worth it.

I've actually used this software to fix problems that McAfee couldn't (the boot time scan is not possible with McAfee).

Re:Also try AVAST!

[MarkGriz]

Another good, free alternative is AVG Antivirus

It's great for tinfoil hatters too, since you don't even need a registration code.