21 September 2006
Third-Party Security Software Put Off by Vista's Security
Symantec has yet again expressed concerns over two of Vista's features. Windows Security Center and PatchGuard in 64-bit Vista both make it harder for third-party security software to run on Vista according to Symantec.
PatchGuard prevents software from accessing the kernel stopping the use of technology preventing the security software's code from being modified by malicious code. It also causes difficulty in protecting against exploits that take advantage of kernel bugs.
Symantec also warned that Vista users will as well have the possible problem of Windows Security Center and Symantec warnings popping up at the same time. With the two warnings popping up Symantec feels that users will become confused or being to ignore security messages. Of course it is possible to disable Windows Security Center when running other security software, which will eliminate this problem, but many users don't know how or feel comfortable doing this.
Symantec has said about Microsoft that "There is no question that they're leveraging a monopolistic position to limit customer choice". They haven't made any claims of antitrust violations though as Vista has yet to be sold on the market. It is highly possible that those claims will be made when Vista is released if the situation stays as it is.
Microsoft has been claiming the whole time that their blocking the kernel is in attempt to raise their security standards, which maybe it will a little. The problem stands that with the only kernel-level protection in Vista being Vista itself, malicious software creators can focus only on cracking that security and not worry about other third-party producers. This causes the security level to actually be lowered. Any bug in Vista's security system will open every system running Vista because no other software can be used to protect it until a patch is released by Microsoft which as we all know usually happens once a month as opposed to the more frequent updates to security software, usually being updated days or hours after new threats are discovered.
PatchGuard prevents software from accessing the kernel stopping the use of technology preventing the security software's code from being modified by malicious code. It also causes difficulty in protecting against exploits that take advantage of kernel bugs.
Symantec also warned that Vista users will as well have the possible problem of Windows Security Center and Symantec warnings popping up at the same time. With the two warnings popping up Symantec feels that users will become confused or being to ignore security messages. Of course it is possible to disable Windows Security Center when running other security software, which will eliminate this problem, but many users don't know how or feel comfortable doing this.
Symantec has said about Microsoft that "There is no question that they're leveraging a monopolistic position to limit customer choice". They haven't made any claims of antitrust violations though as Vista has yet to be sold on the market. It is highly possible that those claims will be made when Vista is released if the situation stays as it is.
Microsoft has been claiming the whole time that their blocking the kernel is in attempt to raise their security standards, which maybe it will a little. The problem stands that with the only kernel-level protection in Vista being Vista itself, malicious software creators can focus only on cracking that security and not worry about other third-party producers. This causes the security level to actually be lowered. Any bug in Vista's security system will open every system running Vista because no other software can be used to protect it until a patch is released by Microsoft which as we all know usually happens once a month as opposed to the more frequent updates to security software, usually being updated days or hours after new threats are discovered.
Labels: microsoft, security, vista, windows
