“During a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, outgoing Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, while touting the new security features of Windows Vista, which was released to manufacturing yesterday, told a reporter that the system’s new lockdown features are so capable and thorough that he was comfortable with his own seven-year-old son using Vista without antivirus software installed,” Scott M. Fulton, III reports for BetaNews.
Fulton reports, “Allchin’s statement came in response to a question about his relative level of confidence that Vista would be more secure than Windows XP SP2. In response, he noted there were key security features added to Vista which could not be added to Windows XP SP2 even though, he said, his people apparently tried to do so.”
“Two such features — namely Vista’s new parental controls, and Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), which renders the object code of the system kernel in memory differently each time to thwart the designs of malicious code — render his son’s Vista machine comfortable enough for him to use, even though production-quality anti-virus software for the unit has yet to be completed,” Fulton reports.
Fulton reports, “Allchin continued, ‘Please don’t misunderstand me: This is an escalating situation. The hackers are getting smarter, there’s more at stake, and so there’s just no way for us to say that some perfection has been achieved. But I can say, knowing what I know now, I feel very confident… ‘Windows Vista is something that will have issues in security, because the bar is being raised over time… But in my opinion, it is the most secure system that’s available, and it’s certainly the most secure system that we’ve shipped.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course Allchin’s “confident,” he’s on his way out and free of any concerns about accountability. He’ll be lucky to make it to the 9th hole on his first day of retirement before Vista sufferers get hit with their first of many exploits. Windows Vista is not “the most secure system that’s available,” Apple’s Mac OS X is clearly the system to beat. And, when it comes to security, Microsoft is not even in the same universe, much less the same league, as Apple. “Microsoft security” is an oxymoron. With his statements above, Allchin takes the “oxy” out of “oxymoron.”
For a Microsoft short-timer to claim Windows Vista is “the most secure system that we’ve shipped” is a joke. How hard is to improve on Windows’ absolutely miserable security record? Microsoft does this every time it inflicts a “new” Windows on the world. Promise, promises, promises… unfulfilled.
What about security? Bill Foundstone says that, “Windows XP can provide the strongest network security available.” Now why is that? Well, there are many things that we added to the system — Internet firewall, so that when you install a product you get instant protection from attackers trying to get into your system. We added a bunch of other capabilities to the system for security, but we also worked with the industry, the anti-virus vendors, the consultants to ensure that their products, together with Windows XP, created a holistic experience. We also came up with a new advanced technology that let us scan all the source code in the system to look for potential security issues, and we removed them before we shipped. We also put Windows XP on the Internet and we didn’t have a single compromise, and we left it on there for a very, very long time. – Jim Allchin, Windows XP launch, October 25, 2001
The bottom line: If he’s not trying to royally screw Microsoft before he takes his hike, then Allchin is crassly trying to sell Vista to the ignorant. Who’s going to buy it this time around?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Microsoft’s oft-delayed, much-pared-down Windows Vista hacked at Black Hat – August 07, 2006
Symantec researcher: At this time, there are no file-infecting viruses that can infect Mac OS X – July 13, 2006
Sophos: Apple Mac OS X’s security record unscathed; Windows Vista malware just a matter of time – July 07, 2006
Sophos Security: Dump Windows, Get a Mac – July 05, 2006
Windows chief Allchin: Buy Windows Vista for the security – January 30, 2006
Hackers already targeting viruses for Microsoft’s Windows Vista – August 04, 2005
Windows czar Allchin says Apple copying Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn – April 27, 2005
So, who’s buying Symantec stock today???
I like the MDN take. It gave me a smile for a Friday!
How much weed is this guy seriously smoking. RC1 already had flaws within its like first hour of release.
Wow
MSFT blows
ASLR sounds clever, though.
Either the kid was using Vista under Parallels, or he had no Internet connection.
So a seven year old that is using a limited account, with parental controls enabled, who frequents teletubbies.com doesn’t have anything to worry about.
I have a bridge for sale, CHEAP!!
Microsoft customers won’t need anti-virus software when a monkey is president…
O my God!
Allchin continued. “But in my opinion, it (Vista) is the most secure system that’s available,…”
I hope people don’t believe him; I sure do not!
“…he was comfortable with his own seven-year-old son using Vista without antivirus software installed.”
Safe bet his IT guy isn’t NEARLY as comfortable with that prospect.
What re really wanted to say: “antivirus software would not make it any safer, because it’s once again inherently insecure”
hes doing microsoft a disservice actually.
No one expects vista to be secure.
hes building something up that isnt going to be the case.
Damn! Is it April 1st already?
Actually…..
No version of windows REQUIRES antivirus protection.
you have a choice. It is an option. You can get infected with a virus. You don’t have to protect yourself. No one is forcing you.
Aslo, Windows works fine as long as the computer is not hooked up to the internet. His son is probably not allowed to go online. He has given his son MS Encarta which has everything important on the web.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha!
Go ahead, pull the other one. It has bells on it!
I mean, Vista Beta had how many viruses on it in the first 90 minutes?
In a related story-
Your car no longer needs gas…
Anybody know the IP address for that Allchin kid?
Seriously:
Active X, yep still there
IE, yep still there
Resistry with all system settings that can be modified when you install a program, yep still there
There will be exploits before the boxed copies hit the shelves in the stores.
,,,Unless you want to go somewhere.
Uh, thats registry not resistry. Sorry, I was just so excited about a Vista machine running without AV.
AL:
“Aslo, Windows works fine as long as the computer is not hooked up to the internet. His son is probably not allowed to go online. He has given his son MS Encarta which has everything important on the web.”
When I used PCs back many years ago in the days of DOS, in school computer labs.. this was when there was no internet and you saved your data onto floppies, the school lab was literally RIDDLED with viruses. Back then back in command line days before Windows.
Viruses were so prevalent we had to scan our floppies before we used the computer lab, and STILL machines would get infected and the lab was periodically shut down due to virus issues.
Real smart Allchin…leave a challenge to hackers as you slip out the back door.
Most regular posters on this site are not fans of Doze, but for those that are, this has to be one of the scariest statements you’ll ever read.
Microsoft didn’t deliever security because…
1: There basically wasn’t any competition, Apple at the time was dying from mismanagement.
2: It served M$ purpose to put out insecure operating systems and software because it gave IT personel a job. They in return reinforced the Microsoft domination.
3: Microsoft and Sony envision the X-Box and PS3 taking over the consumer computing market.
So M$ kept Windows/IE insecure to give IT a job, to force consumers to ditch computers for console boxes.
That was the plan, now that’s changed.
Apple and Linux is a real threat to M$ domination. So the Wintel alliance created Trusted Computing, HDCP and EFI which locked the market in favor of Intel x86 based chips.
IBM is now out with their PPC processors, turning to the gaming market and big servers. Apple had to adopt Intel processors and sell their soul.
M$ is locking VISTA features to proprietory Direct X enabled video cards. So even if Mac’s can run Vista, it won’t do it well.
M$ is fixing the security issues in Windows and IE to lock the market share from advances in Open Source and Apple.
Most of IT will be nearly out of a job soon.
Microsoft Windows without virus is like a car without a wheel.
i was sure scott adams based a lot of his humor on sterotypical behavior of management or the government. i’m moved to think he has someone feeding him things from redmond.
mw: real… too real