Microsoft to release free security software soon
Microsoft plans to release the final version of its free antivirus software soon, according to a note sent to testers late Sunday.
"The final version of Microsoft Security Essentials will be released to the public in the coming weeks," Microsoft said in the note.
(Credit:
CNET News)
Microsoft first announced its plans for the product, then code-named Morro, last November, at the same time the company said it was scrapping its paid Windows Live OneCare product.
Public beta testing of Security Essentials started in June, with Microsoft reaching its goal of 75,000 testers just one day after it issued a call for them.
On a personal note, I've been using the product on several machines since June, and I like the way--unlike other antivirus programs--it doesn't make a spectacle of itself, just quietly doing its thing. I often forget it is running on a machine, yet it did save my bacon a couple weeks back when I almost caught Koobface from a friend on Facebook.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Not presently, however it's not hard to do, but would anyone want a "dead" interface with the web?
Actually, they have already done so. There were only a couple of exploits that surfaced in 2007 which could supposedly reliably exploit known vulnerabilities. As we know, IE7 did not actually implement Vista's ASLR. IE8 does, and criminals have been failing to exploit Vista or any of the test versions of W7 in the wild (obviously, W7's so-called "broken" UAC doesn't mean much, after all). Actually, although this doesn't mean it never happened, I don't distinctly recall having seen any Vista machines infected with drive-by parasites in 2007, either. It's always been Trojans and rogue antimalware. And most of the time, I've found P2P software on the machine along with it.
If you've paid any attention to the responses you have gotten, you would know by now that IIS does NOT get hacked more often than Apache; the reality is quite the reverse (in spite of the fact that Apache isn't that much more prevalent than IIS). That said, every platform is vulnerable to local infection, when the user opens an e-mail attachment (even from a loved one). Using social engineering to get through the Web barriers is half the battle, and skilled coders can couple this with a privilege escalation exploit; that way, the user will never see a red flag in the form of an authentication prompt. And we know that all platforms have known privilege escalation vulnerabilities, with more being discovered all the time (and with that, your "build a secure OS" bit flies out the Window... pun intended).
If you were a penetration tester, you wouldn't continue to deny this, especially after being refuted umpteen times. But you're not; you're just another *nix proponent who thought he could bluff everybody else on CNET. Unfortunately, there are professionals here who know better. And until you can break the spell of religious fundamentalism, you will keep losing debates until someone makes you look so foolish that you can no longer bear to look yourself in the mirror. Quit doing this to yourself, already.
Haha! Well, I can't speak for everybody, but as for me? No.
Please take your computer to a qualified technician as soon as you can. Your keyboard macro appears to be stuck in a loop, making the same comment again and again without changing any time a Microsoft reference is made.
I have to assume it's a hardware or software failure of the computer and not just a brain-dead troll making such comments.
I am not saying i know this but so far how Microsoft has treated other similar software.
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/msestart/thread/ff286d70-ea06-45bb-b057-6f79ca7a01bb
I have seen this on the 3-4 Vista PC's I put it on. Crazy high CPU for up to 30min after a reboot.
PS. that post seems to point to a TWAIN interface causing a conflict (for scanners).
Does TWAIN still exist? Wow.
Of course, there are those who feel the Mac OS is superior, but people simply don't want it. It has been 25 years and that OS, in all its versions, has never had more than 5% market share. Now the Mac itself is the lowest selling product of Apple, which primarily sells music and telephones.
Good one :)
There's a bit of a difference there. First, at the time Netscape was one company instead of an entire industry. Microsoft has yet to run an entire industry out of business.
Second there's a HUGE difference between providing a quality web surfing experience and protecting one's self from spyware and viruses. Some programs do the job better than others and if Microsoft is unable to do as good a job and too many viruses or spyware objects go unnoticed by this software then people will look for better alternatives.
@bookshire:
I suspect that MSSE shouldn't be bad at detecting new threats quickly, as it leverages the user network to do so within seconds; a concept used also by CyberDefender, ThreatFire, Panda Cloud Antivirus, and McAfee's Artemis. This helps to close the zero-day gap.
What a bunch of tools... You are living in the past in order to justify your hate mongering.
If it works, I may use it in time. I don't like Microsoft and I don't hate Microsoft (in fact I'm still working on what hate actually is...been ten years and I still haven't gotten it...though I think people throw around the word too casually). My point was people shouldn't assume it will dominate, and they shouldn't assume it will crash. They should wait and see...if it works for them, they should use it. If it doesn't, use something else.
You're absolutely right. It's too soon to make any calls on this. I should let you know that I have one of the 75,000 original beta copies, which I just recently reinstalled and then upgraded to the current version. I will state that it seems to be averaging 40-70 MB of RAM usage on my system. This is pretty small compared to the average antimalware suite, which does all its work on the local machine. However, it is considerably heavier than the last version of Panda Cloud Antivirus I tested, which averaged an impressively low 10-20 MB of RAM, and 50 MB during a scan.
I think I like Panda's features better, to tell you the truth. Panda is more "set and forget," in that it defaults to automatic updating while MSSE apparently does not; this could be catastrophic if people don't know about it (and I doubt many people will). Also, Cloud Antivirus lets you restore quarantined objects from a recycle bin, while MSSE uses restore points. Unless you create manual restore points AFTER every installation/uninstallation - which the average user does not do - this could be a HUGE inconvenience. I think I'm going to relay this info to MS, now that I think about it.
Just for the record, I wasn't putting a wager on anything. I was only stating what Microsoft MIGHT do. Cheers!
1. No matter what you have something will get buy it if you use your Windows computer unwisely. I have cleaned "Anti-Virus 2009" off of Vista machines that were using the latest Norton, just two weeks ago. The user clicked ok and that was that.
2. Automatic updates, free AV software, UAC = ON, a simple home router that does SPI, will block 99% of all crap. The other 1% is up to you.
You know, I agree 100%. So many people out there think that if they install AV software then they can go anywhere and do anything and never get infected.
I haven't had a virus infect any of my computers in over nine years. Partially because of my firewall, partially because of my Anti-Virus, my MOSTLY because I know how to surf the internet in a responsible manner.
1. Use Firefox with noscript or adblocker.
2. Make sure Windows Update is enabled and set to run automatically.
3. Make sure your firewall is enabled.
4. Make sure whatever e-mail client you have is current and security is enabled.
5. And this is a big one. USE COMMON SENSE. If something pops up saying your system may be insecure, click here to scan....its probably malware.
I've been running widows since 92 with no antivirus software and I've had ONE virus back in 95....called NYB. Otherwise nothing. Simply checking yourself before clicking on something will save your butt.
The best thing to do is not get infected with malware in the first place. Attachments in email have always been a security issue, so I never open them without first downloading and scanning them. If I'm extremely suspicious, I create a new limited user account to view the attachment, then delete the account when I'm done.
While running IE8 in protected mode using Vista is fairly secure, new or unpatched vulnerabilities in ActiveX controls continue to be an issue. Though not 100% secure either, alternative browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, or Opera offer fewer attack vectors. Safe browsing strategies also help, but not all of the time.
I use Firefox with NoScript, Flashblock, and Adblock Plus. While NoScript does a great job of mitigating threats from JavaScript and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), it takes a little getting used to, as by default it will prevent some websites from working. This behavior can be modified at a very granular level to allow scripts to run for individual domains. While at times it can be inconvenient, NoScript does protect against the majority of drive by downloads.
For many years now, the worst things I've had on my Windows systems have been tracking cookies. Even so, I operate under the assumption that sooner or later my system will be infected by some sort of malware. To mitigate the damage, I encrypt sensitive files and folders. While this won't protect me against keyloggers and rootkits, it's an added level of security that isn't inconvenient. A good backup strategy is also essential.
There are those that advocate using OS's such as Mac OS X or Linux. Since the vast majority of malware is written for Windows, those OS's are relatively more secure. Though they may still have vulnerabilities, there are very few exploits that currently affect them. Since switching to an OS other than Windows is not a viable option for me, I follow best practices and stay up to date on security issues. The threat picture is constantly changing and gets worse everday. I also use Linux live CD's for online financial services and have Xubuntu installed on a older laptop that I use at public WiFi hotspots.
I know a few people that don't use any kind of security software, not even free versions, and one is an avid P2P user. No doubt some of them are unwitting botnet members. Hopefully, for idiots such as these, Microsoft will eventually include something like Security Essentials as part of Windows.
When Windows 7 comes out I will definitely give their free option a try. No one should be able to beat MS at building an Anti-virus suite for their OS. I hope they get it right I'm tired of those d@mn Mac commercials raving about their lack of viruses, malware, etc.
There has never been a better time in history to be a "PC". And for the record I'm not an Apple hater so please don't start! I think both products can suit their users needs its all about what you want.
The company said the operating system will be ready to download from 22 October and after clicking through all the user agreements and restarting your system 85 times it should be ready to install unsuccessfully by Christmas.
A Microsoft spokesman said: "This is a great opportunity for young people to claw at their skulls and scream 'no, no, no, I do not want to load any more ******* updates, you utterly horrifying box full of evil' while trying to arrange cups of coffees and study sessions with their new college pals."
While it might be hilarious, it's definitely not true. Which you would no doubt know if you had actually installed it.
It took all of 20 min for me to install Win 7 RC as a dual boot option. Since then it has worked flawlessly.
As a college student, I qualified to pre-order Win 7 Pro for $30. I have no complaints.
"The_happy_troll" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! Good one!
Also, I agree. I'm sick of Apple/Linux fans telling me if I would just try their products I would love them; for two reasons.
1: I have a Macbook Pro which I use from time to time stupidly thinking that maybe I'll finally find where all they hype comes from. Needless to say, that's all Mac has ever been, hype. And I've tried multiple versions of Linux and do generally like them, but they don't even hold a match to Windows. (This includes Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora, Mint, and Suse.)
2: Practically every single one of them havn't touched Windows since XP SP1. So they're hypocrits trashing Vista and Windows 7 when they've never seen anything but screen shots.
When it comes to Vista and Windows 7 beta and RC, the only problem I've EVER come across is that Vista can run a little slow, yet still runs twice as fast as Mac ever did with the exact same specs.
Let me get this straight- you are taking your facts from someone who is admittedly making things up for their amusement and poking fun at people who are uninformed / ignorant enough to believe it as fact?
Yeah........ okay, that explains a lot about your comments on CNET. :)
<a href="http://hypnosisfearofflying.com">benat</a>
- by September 22, 2009 9:25 PM PDT
- Your gender changes and preferences really make this article legit. Very professional. Good job Cnet.
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