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

Re:It should be part of the OS!

[daern]

No, no, no! It should be part of the OS. If I buy an OS and it is vulnerable to viruses, it is a flaw in the OS's design. Why do I have to pay extra to make my machine usable?

No, it shouldn't. If Microsoft *did* bundle AV with Windows, everyone on slashdot would be jumping up and down saying "Microsoft are being anti-competitive yet again!!". Microsoft have been (rightly) burnt by the fair competition regulations often enough to know that they cannot just bundle this in and need to offer their product so that it can compete on the open market.

That said, many people will use it because it is easiest to take it from the same vendor as the O/S, even if it's not the best solution, technically.

My biggest concern is that MS will use non-disclosed APIs to support their AV, leaving the rest of the market to use the current selection of cludges to make their work. Obviously, this would be unfair and they should be shot if they are thinking it...

If MS follows the strategy it has used in the past

[rben]

Then it's likely that every time you get an update, it will make any competing anti-virus product stop working. Some of us still remember the old rhyme: The code's not done till WordPerfect won't run.

If MS eliminates all other anti-virus vendors then we are put in an interesting situation. We have all heard the rumors that some AV companies have made deals with some spyware vendors and with the government to ignore programs that the vendors don't want scrubbed from your computer and that the government uses when investigating criminals. If there is only one vendor of AV software on Windows, there is only one company anyone has to negotiate with to keep their software from showing up as a virus.

On the other hand, I believe that the security of the computer is fundmentally the job of the operating system. So the software designer in me says that's where it should go. It should be a loadable module of the OS and it should be layered so that it doesn't just look for signatures but for suspicious behavior. It should check the logs for bad behavior, etc.

Finally, I simply will never fully trust any software that is built from sources that I can't inspect. I dont' care if it's the OS or the anti-virus software. I don't believe in security by obscurity. I want to be able to make sure that my AV software isn't excluding some malware because of a little money changing hands. My computer is MY property. If the government want's to know what's on it, I think they should bring a warrant, not plant programs on it.

While I recognize the value of "wiretaps" in law enforcement, I think that establishing a back door through which the government can load malware onto your computer will quickly turn into a backdoor that any hacker can and will use. Whatever technique they come up with, someone will figure it out, steal it, or buy it from some under-paid government worker. It will only leave all of our computers open... kind of like they are now.

I strongly suspect that Microsoft is going to try to dominate the AV market and use that domination to push their "Trusted Computer Model," where, effectively, MS owns your computer and controls what you can and cannot do with it.

All of this reinforces my commitment to never buy another MS Operating System. I only use Windows now because I love computer games and computer game manufacturers have not, for the most part, embraced the Linux market. I wish they'd hurry up and start porting.