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Intel Enters Anti-Virus Market
Jack writes "ITO holds a story on latest Intel investment: "Intel is branching into anti-virus security with a $16 million investment in Czech anti-virus software vendor Grisoft. Grisoft's AVG anti-virus is used on more than 25 million computers worldwide, according to the company."
If an Intel processor could be made to have hardware-based virus detection, integrating with this software-based virus detection, the team could be a very powerful deterrant to any future virus outbreaks. Imagine the hardware and software components working side by side to protect systems, giving future virus writers another hurdle to be cleared, when developing new virus infestations.
Hopefully the virus software can be made more efficient as well, so that running virus software on a system won't bog it down, hogging system resources like crazy, making people want to not run virus software in the first place. This has long been the bane of the majority of software packages, as the slowdown they cause for certain users, especially gamers, has made them desire to not run the software packages on their systems, resulting in these systems being more vulnerable to a virus outbreak.
Another added benefit that I can see from Intel buying this software, is that eventually if they integrate software and hardware aspects into a cohesive package that is well-implemented and able to fight viruses at a better efficiency then other programs, this will cause Intel based processors to stand out as well, as these days, virus protection and spyware protection are very important to the majority of users out there.
If Intel does this right, this can raise the bar for future processing efforts. Soon there will be more to consider when buying a new system then processing speed and cache size, might have to start considering integrated software as well in the not so distant future...
Good luck on this one Intel...
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how many of those are AVG free?
This seems like a big company diversifying and buying a portion of a smaller company, not trying to incorporate antivirus capabilities into their microprocessor line of products.
And Centrino was just a branding for a specific CPU, WiFi, and chipset. It wasn't some flashy new technology, just flashy marketing. I don't think you can really make virus detection software at the CPU level anyway.
Remember, this is the real world. Things aren't always fair, and things don't always go as perhaps they ideally should.
While Intel probably shouldn't be responsible for helping prevent some of the problems associated with Windows, they should very well act so as to protect their image. Limiting the association of malicious software with their processors is a very good start. That is something that they alone must do, however, regardless of what Microsoft does.
Likewise for the developers of PHP. Sure, they can stand back and always blame the third-party developers who write shitty, insecure scripts. Or they could do the sensible thing, and take some action. Put measures in place to prevent, or at the very least limit, the ability of poorly written third-party scripts to reflect poorly on PHP.
It's far more beneficial for Intel or the PHP developers to act, rather than just throw blame around while their public images are decimated. Throwing blame around solves nothing, while taking real, technological action may very well prevent the problems in the first place.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Their tcpserv product gathers status data from all AVG "clients" on the network, including several hung off a 64kbps leased line - it's conservative on bandwidth. AVG for linux scans samba shares, and soon I will have AVG for sendmail monitoring mail in and out.
The AVGadmin client can be used to view reports, force updates and make configuration changes to all clients from my desktop - I've yet to try running their AVGadmin app under wine...
I'm very pleased with the flexibility offered by AVG network edition for linux/windows sites. I hope Intel doesn't pressure AVG to scrap the linux support.
I remember this...
I dumped Trend Micro for AVG (if I remember correctly) over this issue.
I actually pay for my AVG licenses simply because I can afford to and good companies need to be kept alive.
Now strangely I wonder what will come of this. I don't really like doing business with either Intel *or* Microsoft. Though to be fair, Intel is certainly not Microsoft- who in mymind sets the standard for sleeze.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
I would not be surprised if someone in management at Intel tried AVG Free and liked it enough to "buy the company". I would think that the free version would continue to be available.
It's a good product; effective, low resource usage, and updated often. I have found Norton to be a TERRIBLE resource hog. McAfee is a bit better, but buggy (in my opinion).
What I ESPECIALLY like is the reponsiveness of the company itself. Version 6 had a fixed installation location; I believe in installing security software like a firewall, anti-spyware, and virus checkers to non-standard locations to at least help thwart possible attempts to disable them through malware. When I suggested via e-mail that the company change their installer to allow varying the installation location, it was clear they took me seriously -- and, lo-and-behold, version 7 allows the user to do just that.
This is about an Intel Virtual machine, which will wrest the PC away from Microsoft.
I wish I could remember where I read the article ( Register, Inquirer, or Tom's Hardware ), but
Intel is crafting a root kit virtual machine which snatches control from Microsoft.
The first target is a vitual ethernet that performs network security, including antivirus.
Everything else on the PC is also fair game.
With this root kit, Intel makes hardware primary again. No more begging silly Microsoft to clean
up their silly legacy x86 code, which inhibits Intel's plans for massive processor improvements.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates still blames Intel for the 286, and thinks that Intel are just a bunch of
lucky incompetents riding on Microsoft's success.
An Intel root kit will not require Windows software in any way whatsoever. This will free Intel to completely focus on CPU's and chip sets with related drivers. The code can be written in the most optimal manner, favoring the hardware.
It will also, incidently, provide a silent way to patch Intel bugs, should such ever occur.
Intel takes over the hardware plus drivers, and makes Windows into just another application.
All software drivers become Intel Certified instead of Microsoft Certified.
Apple gets a more fair chance, since the PC is now an Intel desktop.
Linux gets software driver support for all the latest hardware, as soon as Microsoft does, by
default.
I use ClamWin, because I don't really need an antivirus (I don't click every exe I encounter, I'm behind NAT, and I don't use IE or OE, and I keep my box updated).
.com intro's of some abandonware as being a virus.
I use it sometimes for the odd exe I don't trust. What I don't like about it:
-it's slow, very slow.
-it gives too many false positives (don't know about false negatives, I don't have a virus collection). It saw the notepad plus plus installer (got it from sourceforge) as a virus. It also wrongly accused some old
I can live with that, as I use it just in an advisory role (I don't let it delete any virus it comes accross), and use it together with some other factors (where did I get it?) to determine if an application is safe.
Hehe, it's frequent error over here in CZ, some words that look/sound the same have different meaning. Complex (komplexni) means something like comprehensive in Czech language.
I run AVG for Networks in a small school district where I am the IT Coordinator. Education gets a 50% discount and the product has always preformed well.
I hope that Intel doesn't turn it into a monster like Norton or McAffee, and hopefully they will keep the same price scheme. It would be a shame to loose my favorite windows anti-virus software.
~Petaris "The world is open. Are you?"