Comments on: Microsoft buy comes with strings attached

A Florida company claims co-ownership of anti-spyware software scooped up by Microsoft this week in an acquisition.

IE is not a target because it's popular...

It's a target because Microsoft's security model is fundamentally flawed. Microsoft has *always* valued bells and whistles over security, and there is no real sign that this has changed.

[David Arbogast]

partly right

In the past, MS has valued features and integration more than security. I agree. But I strongly disagree that MS has shown no improvements, and I think you are way off base if you suggest that IE's enormous install base has nothing to do with its status as a target for virii. It sounds like your irrational hatred for MS is causing you to overlook some rather obvious conclusions.

Bells and Whistles are you....

Bells and Whistles, Microsoft...IE are you daft. This is one of the biggest reasons people are jumping ship from IE is that it has no bells and whistles. That isn't to say that the security issues are part of the reason IE is target because it is. But, it is also because so many people are using it. However, unless Microsoft improves IE and adds some bells and whistles that will not be the case for long.

Also, doesn't anyone else find it odd that instead of fixing the security holes in IE and Windows so that spyware is harder to make/install/activate that Microsoft has choosen to just help detect it and remove it? Seems to me that once again Microsoft is sliding down the wrong tree and getting splinters in nasty places.

So now what we will have is an OS with security holes, a browser with even more security holes and a program that is supposed to detect and remove programs that use these security holes but has its own security holes. Makes sense to me!

Robert