Microsoft Security Essentials 2.0 Released

Greg writes with this excerpt from Ars Techica: "Following a four-month beta program, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) 2.0 has been released. The new version significantly revamps the heuristic scanning engine, adds Windows Firewall integration as well as network traffic inspection. The update unquestionably makes MSE, which has already become very popular due to its quiet but effective ways, even more of a must-have for Windows users. MSE has always been very good at finding and removing malware, but it has relied mainly on antimalware definitions. The improved heuristic engine makes it even better at detecting threats; at the same time, we expect the number of false positives to slightly increase as well. The new Windows Firewall integration is a minor improvement: it lets you tweak Microsoft's firewall from inside MSE."

Comments

too much of a target

[Dzimas]

My biggest concern about MSE is that it's released by Microsoft. That makes it a natural target for malware and virus authors -- there's a certain credibility to be earned by writing software that defeats security protection by The Man. I'd prefer to run a less common (but equally effective) anti-virus suite that won't attract as much attention from the black hats. As it is, running MSE 2.0 feels a bit like pinning a big bulls eye target sign on my back.

better!

[dmbasso]

Even better to be without malware for 10 years now! Thanks Debian and Ubuntu!

Re:better!

[ozmanjusri]

Even better to be without malware for 10 years now! Thanks Debian and Ubuntu!

Why the Troll mod?

If you take a step back, the whole idea of needing (CPU, $ expensive) external programs like virus checkers and firewalls to protect your OS is ridiculous. Microsoft should be deeply ashamed that such a massive industry has grown up around their failure to build a secure OS.

Maybe if they paid more attention to their engineers and less to their reputation managers, they wouldn't need to manipulate social networks and tech sites.