Details of Microsoft antivirus software leak out

A product manager at Microsoft in France divulged on Wednesday some of the software maker's plans for its highly anticipated entry into the antivirus software market.

A standalone antivirus product will be built from tools the company inherited through its 2003 acquisitions of GeCad and Pelican Software, according to a report published in CNET News.com's sister publication, ZDNet France, citing the technical head of Microsoft's security project in that country, Nicolas Mirail.

Microsoft representatives in the United States refused to comment on functional elements or a potential production time frame for the antivirus package.

However, Mirail said the Microsoft antivirus software will utilize two different means of detecting destructive files, the first of which will reference a regularly updated list of known viruses to check for potential infections. The second antivirus tool will analyze computer systems to assess whether they have been hit by a virus in the past and attempt to give end users an idea of how at risk their computers might be for future problems.

Mirail indicated that the antivirus package will not come with firewall security software but said a firewall would be built into the company's Windows XP operating system when Microsoft delivers its Service Pack 2 update. He said the product would work with both Windows XP and the Longhorn release of Windows.

Microsoft representatives denied that Mirail's comments released previously unknown details, but the company has offered little information publicly about its antivirus plans. Microsoft has been rumored to be seeking a high-profile acquisition in that arena, and security specialist Network Associates was said to be on the company's radar. Earlier this month, another European security executive at Microsoft said the company's antivirus plans remain in their early stages, including the integration of the products it has amassed via acquisition.

When Microsoft purchased GeCad, which is based in Bucharest, Romania, it positioned the acquisition as the next step in its Trustworthy Computing initiative, a move aimed at securing what Microsoft estimates are the nearly two-thirds of Windows users who don't have up-to-date antivirus software on their computers. The company said at that time that it might launch a paid-subscription service for Windows users.

The latest virus to wreak havoc on the Internet was MyDoom.M, a new variant of the prolific worm, which came to life Monday and quickly snarled Google and other search sites. Though the latest version of MyDoom did not target Microsoft products specifically, as many other viruses have, it hosted an ancillary, or "backdoor," infection programmed to launch a denial-of-service attack on the software maker's Web site.

Christophe Guillemin of ZDNet France reported from Paris.

[Dachi]

Why not build secure mail client instead?

Seriously, why can't they build a locked-down email client and give it away for free?

There are hundreds of AV utilities out there, yet security threats are at an all-time high.

If this solution is not a drastically different and more effective method, it will just milk people for money and provide a false sense of security like the other solutions.

If it is drastically different, they will face anti-trust allegations again for using their position as an OS vendor to leverage their AV product.

How is it that a D student like me is probably more qualified at making decisions than the folks at MS who decided to do this?

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Better yet, switych to Linux

Seriously, this is an obvious solution.

[Not Bugged]

You don't understand

Perhaps you're a D student because you don't understand things that well. The biggest reason viruses and such keep spreading is because people will ignore all the warnings you give them in their rush to see whatever the virus writer told them they'd see when they open the attachement. It's not the mail software that's to blame in most cases, it's the person behind the keyboard.

Hmmm...

How altruistic is this? What is the motivation?
Just to expand your product base? An OS vendor
that writes it's own anit-virus software doesn't
just sound right to me. Why not focus on building
an impregnable system? Isn't that better than
competing with AV software vendors who survive by
proffering solutions to guard against your own software vulnerabilities?

[zizzybaloobah]

Hey MS! Make your existing stuff secure first! An analogy

I've got several problems with MS offering antivirus software:

First, imagine if McDonalds not only sold food that made you sick (I know, that's impossible! >8-)), but also sold their own remedy to make it better! I'm sure they wouldn't be bragging about billions and billions served!

Second, if MS can't keep their OS, browser, and email client secure, can we really trust them to create reliable antivirus software? Even the established players in this area have had a few security problems of their own.

Third, I'll bet their product won't be included with the standard version of the operating system -- Surely it will be part of the "Longhorn Plus Pack".