“Microsoft, whose Windows operating system is often knocked for flaws that leave it vulnerable to malicious computer viruses and worms, is developing a program to protect against such attacks,” Holly Sanders reports for The New York Post. “The company has been pushed to improve security after being plagued by epidemics such as the Blaster worm and Sobig virus in recent years. Those attacks crashed people’s computers and led to widespread slowdowns in Internet traffic.”
“The irony was a bit much for some Windows users, though, who questioned why the software behemoth would sell a product to deal with viruses that take advantage of problems within its own operating system,” Sanders reports. “‘That’s like buying a car with a leaky gas tank and having to pay the car manufacturer to have a fire engine drive alongside,’ one irate user wrote in a posting on a chat board site.”
“The usual defense is that Windows is the target of so many attacks because just about everyone uses it. But computer experts contend that the software has inherent shortcomings that make it an easier hit than rival systems such as Mac OS X and Linux,” Sanders reports. “‘Many of the perceived security problems with Microsoft products are real,’ said Richard Ford, a computer virus expert and professor at the Florida Institute of Technology.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How ’bout just fixing Windows first? Or is that too much to ask? With this news, we have the answer; obviously it is too much to ask of the Redmond monopoly abuser. Our advice? Get a Mac. You can thank us later.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Is Mac OS X really inherently more secure than Windows? – August 26, 2003
BusinessWeek’s Haddad gets it wrong; thinks low market share spares Macs from viruses – August 28, 2003
Shattering the Mac OS X ‘security through obscurity’ myth – August 28, 2003
Fortune columnist: ‘get a Mac’ to thwart viruses; right answer for the wrong reasons – September 02, 2003
New York Times: Mac OS X ‘much more secure than Windows XP’ – September 18, 2003
Columnist tries the ‘security through obscurity’ myth to defend Windows vs. Macs on virus front – October 1, 2003
Gates: Windows ‘by far the most secure’ system; tries to use ‘Mac OS X secure through obscurity’ myth – January 27, 2004
Mac OS X has no viruses; what’s wrong with Windows? – February 11, 2004
Spyware, adware plague Windows users online; Mac OS X users surf freely – April 19, 2004
Gartner: Worms jack up the total cost of Microsoft Windows – May 07, 2004
Apple exec: Mac OS X is ‘more secure than other platforms, certainly more secure than Microsoft Windows’ – June 14, 2004
I admit that I am a fuckstick.
oh yeah.. by the way… no one’s forcing people to buy this *hehe.. Windows Security 2008 thing..
I thought SP2 was supposed to tide us over until Longhorn.. which will be “completely virus proof”
So where’s the virus protect software going? Just a blip? Way to capitalize on intellectual property.. ppft
since Apple makes the best windoze software, maybe Apple should write antivirus software for windoze and make lots of money.
Someone please send Sputnik a worm so he disappears forever.
Re: Fred Mertz
The logic is false. The iPod is arguably the most popular mp3 player and the best. Though perhaps unlikely, the most popular can be the best.
AWESOME!!!!
When we can expect a Mac version?
Heheh
Sputnik – just curious, but have you ever used Windows?
“5. Britney Spears makes the world’s best music.”
Not even close. The Beatles and/or Elvis consistently get top marks for most albums sold. If you’re talking “current marketshare”, though, Usher has the #1 Album & Single according to Billboard.
The best part is the name Microsoft gave to the new program –
“Star Bellied Sneetches!”
You guys are freakin’ high-larious.
Microsoft will be the market leader in virus programs.
First they the biggest holes in the market
Second they fix those holes by making new ones
Third they sell their virus program
They sell their virus program by preventing other virus companies to write fix to Windows.
Now is the time to switch to Os X
So, what incentive will they have to create an OS that’s virus-proof if they also sell anti-virus software? If your OS is virus-proof (which every OS producer should strive to,) then there’s no need for anti-virus software. I guess logic escapes this company.
Hmm, the best product in portable music players is the iPod and it happens to be the most popular too if I’m not mistaken.
Didn’t Microsoft buy Grisoft’s AVG Antivirus. Its a great antivirus application, why not just have its current developers keep developing it??
H�ctor Arciga aka StarkHalo, audiophiles think the iRiver is better acoustically, and other players have longer battery life, so it depends what you mean by “the best.” Only the iPod is a bootable Firewire hard drive for Macs, something I like a lot, and the sonic difference with iRiver is pretty marginal, so the iPod is best for me.
This is like a pharmaceutical company creating a deadly desease and spreading it through out the world – and then creating the vaccine and selling it. They are creating there own market.
What insentive would MS have to fix the flaws in Windows when they can make money from selling the vaccine???
“The usual defense is that Windows is the target of so many attacks because just about everyone uses it. But computer experts contend that the software has inherent shortcomings that make it an easier hit than rival systems such as Mac OS X and Linux”
This is from new York Post!! Amazing. It just shows that some times, even NYP can do great reporting.
macbuddy trade names with me
one simple little question!!! will i have to patch my antivirus program because it has a virus now too???
o and sputnik needs to wake up and realize that the corpporate world doesn not use ms infact a vast majority use linux or unix as there main os maybe there work stations are windows but thats so IT has somthing to do during the day when unix and linux are doing what they should unlike ms who seem to think viruses are where its at.
Dear Mr. Bleez
Please don’t mention this to anyone else. We have more lawyers than you do.
FWIW, Steve and I got our original idea in a flash of innovative thought after Melinda, Steve, his wife and myself were finished watching Mission Impossible II. The screeching and whirring of the cassette tape, as it was rewinding, sent Steve and I into (Patent Pending, 1979) Microsoft MindMeld�
Palladin has tanked, Passport has tanked, XBrick has tanked, .Net has tanked, and we really need money. No really.
This scam, I mean scheme, can’t lose. Everyone in the world – including people that don’t use computers – knows that we’ll never be able to fix Windows. Ever.
But, you know that we’ll make so much money selling Microsoft Windows Anti-Virus for Windows Security and Trustworthiness XP SP2 2005, and the continuous paid updates will put our profit margins in the billions per week.
So, shut up.
Y’all haven’t even scratched the surface of this impending nightmare.
Now, what does Microsoft do to fix a hole in Windows? Do they improve their virus program or do they fix Windows itself? If they fix Windows, will the virus checker still work or will you have to update that too to make it compatible with the new upgraded Windows? Will there now be virus checker upgrades and service packs to worry about as well as Windows upgrades and service packs?
If a virus does get through (you know it will), do they upgrade the virus checker and leave Windows with the holes or do they fix Windows? If they fix Windows, what’s the point of the virus checker?
BUT, here’s the big question…
If the virus checker goes down (crashes on it’s own), will that suddenly leave the user’s PC wide open to all attacks, thus making it a huge nest of assorted viruses within a few minutes? …a few seconds? What if a virus is written to disable the virus checker? Talk about a something with a bull’s-eye clearly stamped on it.
Will Norton and the others withhold the latest virus info so their checkers appear to work better than Microsofts? …will Microsoft just steal Norton’s discoveries and call them their own (as if they’ve never done THAT before!)?
Regardless, even if it does work as planned, now you have ANOTHER memory and CPU hogging ap running in order to keep things “smooth”.
This is meta-insanity; an insane concept to hide, not fix, and insane problem.
This is obviously more of a politically correct PR tactic to make MS appear to be actively doing something. I think they are now more aware that Mac OS is building up enough of a complete system that it can easily take over MS’s stranglehold in the computer markets. I think the real fear and final nail in MS
‘s coffin will be another iLife ap, MacOffice, that integrates nicely with the other existing aps. Now you can download a book as text via MacOffice (via Apple’s new iLibrary, the text and art version of iTunes, with a tap into the Library of Congress) and read it on your iPod. Publish/export to ANY media from the same document. Now ANYONE can write a book or magazine, create still or motion art, and publish/sell it on iLibrary. At that point, MS Office becomes obsolete, and there will be no use for Windows at all.
Once Apple introduces MacOffice and iLibrary as free fully integrated iLife aps, MS will soon be gone.
dummy,
No.
However, I do invite you to read all the comments.
FWIW, I wasn’t trying to be mean. Only trying to point out the seemingly sham-ish, albeit ‘similar to’, ‘our cretinous friend “Ron”‘-style attitude. But, if you like.
Anyway, I read his bit. It read like sarcasm to me.
Microsoft makes a buggy, virus-ridden, worm-infested operating system.
What would make anyone think that MS anti-virus could possibly be any less buggy, virus-ridden, and worm-infested than the OS itself?
The Zenith of Insanity!!!
Every one knows that to cure a virus you have to discover the source and stop it creating a virus.
This is the philospohy in the medical industry!
Creating a new anti-virus software will NOT stop virus’s on windows platform – if anything the virus writers will love creating a virus that can disable the Microsoft virus software.
Virus writers thrive on this sort of challenge and I forsee the number of virus’s increasing BECAUSE Microsoft is writing it’s own anti-virus software.
An so the circle continues…