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The Netscaping of Symantec and McAfee
rs232 writes to mention a C|Net article about the uncertain future of the popular anti-virus software companies. "I mention Netscape because, if you believe Symantec and McAfee, a similar situation is about to unfold within the security industry. Microsoft, again recognizing late that it had failed to seize upon this thing called security, is now about to bundle its own security solutions within Windows Vista and further enforce new security policies that lock out some third-party security solutions altogether. Vendors Symantec and McAfee have looked into the future and realized that people may one day speak of them in the way that we now speak reverently of the early builds of Netscape."
not to mention that signature based antivirus is going to die, and companies who do av/as right (don't let unknown stuff run in the first place, instead of trying to clean up after the fact) are going to eat symantec/mcafee's lunch (bit9, etc.)
Agreed. This is like abortion clinics complaining about lost revenue when condom manufacturers reduce their failure rate.
And no, the fact that in this analogy the end-user is getting screwed either way is not lost on me.
Bemopolis
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
No, however it may suddenly be much less of a priority to the QA managers to ensure that releases are secure, because any flaw may then bolster a revenue stream for Microsoft. And anyhow if they don't catch it in time they could just push a stopgap to their own AV suite which everybody has by default based on their intimate, insider knowledge of their own territory.
My tinfoil hat might be a bit tight, but this does stink a bit. At the very least, what's going on is questionable.