20 October 2006
Lost confidence in MS commitment to 3rd-party security firms
Microsoft last week has promised to work with security providers to allow them to provide security support in Vista.
McAfee has become severely disappointed in Microsoft and stated that Microsoft was issuing 'hollow security promises' after yesterday's teleconference incident. About 15 minutes into the conference using Microsoft's Live Meeting software, Symantec and McAfee were disconnected from the conference and unable to connect again, while about a dozen other companies were unaffected.
The conference was intended to inform the companies of ways Microsoft would allow third-party security providers to work with Vista.
It is curious why McAfee and Symantec, the two companies pressuring for access to Vista's kernel and most vocally claiming that they are unable to support Vista correctly with their security software because of Microsoft's lockdown of the kernel, would both have connection problems while a dozen companies were completely unaffected. It leaves one wondering if it wasn't planned to either prove lack of commitment or as punishment for those complaining. Of course I doubt either company would do that due to the consequences of such an action.
This incident along with the recent vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP could cause companies to question the reliability of Microsoft products and the risk involved in using them. Most companies cannot afford to have their teleconferences with customers fail completely shutting the customer entirely out without it affecting their business greatly and causing a loss of confidence in the products they are providing even if they have nothing to do with the products being used to teleconference. Microsoft has been lucky in that people come back and still feel comfortable using their products after such incidents.
McAfee has become severely disappointed in Microsoft and stated that Microsoft was issuing 'hollow security promises' after yesterday's teleconference incident. About 15 minutes into the conference using Microsoft's Live Meeting software, Symantec and McAfee were disconnected from the conference and unable to connect again, while about a dozen other companies were unaffected.
The conference was intended to inform the companies of ways Microsoft would allow third-party security providers to work with Vista.
It is curious why McAfee and Symantec, the two companies pressuring for access to Vista's kernel and most vocally claiming that they are unable to support Vista correctly with their security software because of Microsoft's lockdown of the kernel, would both have connection problems while a dozen companies were completely unaffected. It leaves one wondering if it wasn't planned to either prove lack of commitment or as punishment for those complaining. Of course I doubt either company would do that due to the consequences of such an action.
This incident along with the recent vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 on Windows XP could cause companies to question the reliability of Microsoft products and the risk involved in using them. Most companies cannot afford to have their teleconferences with customers fail completely shutting the customer entirely out without it affecting their business greatly and causing a loss of confidence in the products they are providing even if they have nothing to do with the products being used to teleconference. Microsoft has been lucky in that people come back and still feel comfortable using their products after such incidents.
Labels: mcafee, microsoft, security, symantec, vista
