Microsoft Claims Vista Is More Secure Than Linux
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According to Microsoft&#39;s Trustworthy Computing Group, the software giant&#39;s latest operating system is far more secure than competing platforms -- or even previous Windows iterations.
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(InfoWorld) - When Windows Vista ships next year, customers might have a tougher time getting their security software to work properly, executives from Symantec said Wednesday. At issue are two new features being introduced with Vista: an enhanced Windows Security Center as well as a feature in the 64-bit version of Vista called PatchGuard. Microsoft says it is adding these features to lock down the operating system, but Symantec believes that they will be harmful to customers by making it harder for them to use third-party software. "There's no question that they're leveraging a monopolistic position to limit customer choice," said Chris Paden a Symantec spokesman. While Symantec executives did accuse Microsoft of being more difficult to work with on Vista than with previous operating system introductions, they stopped short of accusing Microsoft of antitrust violations. "It's not anti-competitive behavior, because Vista hasn't even hit the market yet, " Paden said. Security vendors like Symantec are in a state of heightened sensitivity these days as they've begun to compete with Microsoft head-on, and the specter of further antitrust actions looms over Microsoft's every move in the security space. Last week the European Union's spokesman on competition, Jonathan Todd, warned that theÂ market could be threatenedÂ if Microsoft doesn't allow security vendors a fair chance of competing. Symantec and other security vendors dislike PatchGuard because it prevents them from accessing the Windows kernel. They say it will stop them from delivering important features like Symantec's "anti-tampering" technology, which prevents malicious programs from modifying Symantec's own software. PatchGuard will also make it more difficult for security vendors to protect against malicious software that takes advantage of kernel-level bugs, said Eric Sites, vice president of research and development with Sunbelt Software. "There are a lot of new exploits coming out that exploit kernel-level drivers, " he said. "If we're able to get into the kernel, we can watch for things like that, but with what Microsoft is doing we can't do that." Microsoft declined to be interviewed for this article, but in an interview with IDG News last week a Microsoft executive said that PatchGuard was simply an effort toÂ prevent the kernel from being misused. "We think that there's a significant amount of confusion around... certain security features in the product that we think raise the foundation," said Stephen Toulouse a senior product manager in the Security Technology Unit. "What we're doing is we're walling off the kernel from attackers, because the functionality that is currently there was never meant to be used by anybody -- by software vendors or attackers." But PatchGuard is enabled only in the 64-bit version of Windows. Because there are few 64-bit applications written for Vista, most of Vista's initial users are expected to run the operating system in 32-bit mode, and their security software will still be able to access the kernel. A more immediate issue for Symantec is many Vista users will find that both the Windows Security Center and Symantec warnings will pop up simultaneously. This doesn't happen with Windows XP because Symantec's software is able to automatically disable the Windows warnings, but with Vista users will have to turn off the Security Center themselves. This will make things unnecessarily complicated for many customers, said Rowan Trollope, Symantec's vice president of consumer engineering. "Most users can't figure out how to do that," he said. With two warnings popping up, each with different wording, users will be confused at best, and may simply begin ignoring security warnings altogether, said Sites. Some observers have speculated that Symantec may press the EU for action against Microsoft in this matter, but Trollope and Paden wouldn't say what Symantec planned to do to address these problems. "We're looking at all the possibilities now," said Trollope, "And none of them are good for customers."ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has touted Vista as aÂ more secure version of Windows, but on the day ofÂ Vista's official launch, a security company has identified malware already in circulation that can infect computers running the OS. Sophos identified three viruses typically spread through e-mail that can infect Vista customers who use a third party Web e-mail client. While Vista's e-mail client stops Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D, and MyDoom-O, the malware slips past Vista's defenses when users receive infected messages through a Web-based e-mail service, Sophos said. Stratio-Zip topped Sophos' list of malware affecting computer users in the month of November, accounting for 33.3 percent of malware in circulation. Combined, the three viruses that can affect Vista users make up 39.7 percent of all malware in circulation during the month, Sophos said. However, even if the malware Sophos identified slips through in an e-mail, customers won't necessarily be affected, another researcher said. Additional Vista security mechanisms should protect users, said Mikko HyppÃ¶nen, chief research officer at F-Secure. If a customer opens an infected malware file, Vista would warn and question the user before allowing the malware to wreak havoc. "These particular examples of malware probably wouldn't still be able to successfully infect the machine unless the user specifically allows it," he wrote in an e-mail exchange. Sophos applauded the security improvements in Vista, saying that the variety of popular third party applications used by consumers inevitably will open doors to hackers. Other anti-virus companies haven't been so kind.Â McAfee has been highly criticalÂ of changes in the operating system that it says will make Vista less secure than previous versions of Windows. Symantec said itÂ has discovered vulnerabilitiesÂ in Vista's networking software which makes it less stable than Windows XP. Sophos found that overall, the proportion of infected e-mail remained low in November at 0.28 percent, but identified a record number of new threats, 7,612, during the month.
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A problem with Microsoft's controversial Windows Genuine Advantage authorization process may start to cripple Vista machines in as little as three days if the system, which has taken to identifying legit copies of both Vista and XP as pirated, isn't fixed pronto.
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Red tape vs Redmond...the never ending story The European Commission has hit back at suggestions it has got it in for Microsoft over security features built into the heavily-delayed Windows Vista.â¦
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&quot;The security and virus argument for Linux and against Windows is real, but in many, though not all, aspects, that&#39;s a reflection of how much more widely Windows is deployed,&quot; said Gordon Haff, Illuminata senior analyst.
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Linux advocates have long insisted that open-source development results in better and more secure software. Now they have statistics to back up their claims.
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Microsoft said people running a pirated version of its new Windows Vista operating system will be denied access to some features.
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Security software vendor Symantec claimed this week that Microsoft is withholding information about its new Vista operating system in an attempt to create an unfair advantage for its own security software.
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(InfoWorld) - Windows Vista will be the most secure operating system that Microsoft Corp. has released, a company executive said Tuesday at a Vista launch event in Washington, D.C. Microsoft has listened to feedback from users, who disagreed with the decision to have some security features turned off by default in Windows XP, said Bill Veghte, Microsoft's corporate vice president for North America. "I won't mince words," Veghte said to an audience of nearly 3,000 people. "Every single time we had a trade-off between application compatibility or security, we went with security." ButÂ Windows VistaÂ also includes a feature that shows users which applications have problems after switching from an earlier version of Windows and the fixes that are available for those issues, Veghte said. Microsoft will also submit its Office SharePoint Server 2007 for U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) certification for electronic records management, Veghte said. Microsoft, working with partner Applied Information Sciences Inc., expects to have SharePoint Service compliant with DOD 5015.2 standard in May. The DOD standard focuses on secure records handling, requiring encryption on Web-based applications, the ability to schedule records to expire, and the ability to restrict user access to documents. Applied has developed a Records Management Center add-on pack to SharePoint Server, part of the MicrosoftÂ Office 2007 suite released Tuesday along with Vista. That add-on will allow users to comply with the DOD standard and have "military-grade" records management, said Russ Stalters, Applied's chief technology officer. The add-on package will allow customers to collaborate using SharePoint without buying third-party records-management software, as SharePoint users have had to do in the past, Stalters said. By complying with the DOD standard, the software package "sets the bar" for records management for customers in highly regulated industries, he said. In addition to the DOD compliance, Microsoft's new offerings contain several new security features, Veghte said in his speech. Microsoft has the responsibility of setting the standards for secure defaults and architecture in Vista, he said. Hackers are not standing still, and "we have to keep pace," he said. Among the new security features in Vista: -- System administrators can stop PCs from allowing USB (Universal Serial Bus) drives or other peripherals to be connected. -- Vista and Internet Explorer will warn users when a Web site attempts to install dangerous code. -- An antiphishing site, updated hourly, will warn users of e-mail messages that attempt to trick them into giving up their personal information. -- If a user manages to download malware, the Windows Defender security software is designed to block it from doing damage. -- The Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Vista will allow users to encrypt hard drives. Vista's BitLocker Drive Encryption feature is an attempt to address continuing problems with data breaches, often caused by lost laptops, Veghte said. About 660,000 laptops were lost or stolen in the U.S. in 2006, he said, leading to a lot of stories about such incidents that "ended up on the front page" of major newspapers.
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A report penned by one of Microsoft's top security experts argues that Windows Vista had fewer known security flaws in its first year of release than other major industry operating systems. On the blogs, skeptics abound.
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A Microsoft security executive said his company has made substantial progress on  security under its Trustworthy Computing initiative. But users at this week's Security Standard conference were more cautious in their assessment.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft will introduce a new system for fighting software piracy with its upcoming Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server operating systems, the company said Wednesday. Called the Microsoft Software Protection Platform, it's a collection of technologies that aims to do better at detecting pirated versions of Windows, and will also force unauthorized versions of its software into a limited-functionality mode, encouraging users to obtain a legal copy. People using unlicensed copies of Vista will be blocked from accessing certain features, including a new interface design called Windows Aero, and software for fighting pop-up advertisements called Windows Defender, Microsoft said. The company has already used a reduced functionality mode with Windows XP. Users with an unlicensed versions of Windows will also see a persistent reminder message in the corner of their screen, reading "This copy of Windows is not genuine." The new software is bound to come under scrutiny. Microsoft's previous attempt to reduce unauthorized use of its software, Windows Genuine Advantage, was partially rolled back after it wasÂ criticized as "spyware"Â for stealthily installing itself on users' PCs and reporting information back to Microsoft. Microsoft said the new technologies are necessary to fight software piracy, and said end-users can also benefit because they are less likely to be exposed to faulty or compromised software. End-users installing pirated Vista copies, or who don't register their software using a product key within 30 days, will have their OS functionality reduced. The product key is an ID number assigned to customers for each purchase of Windows. The company said it will also be able to track more easily when products are activated with product keys that have been stolen from a business. Regardless of the authenticity of their Vista copy, all users will have access to Microsoft security updates, the company said. For businesses that use volume license keys for Vista and Longhorn Server, Microsoft will introduce new, policy-based tools for activating those systems. The new tools, called Microsoft Volume Activation 2.0, won't be linked to Microsoft's software billing systems, the company said. Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn -- the code name for the next version of Microsoftâs server software -- will be the first products to ship with the antipiracy technologies, but they'll eventually be used in more of its products. Around 35 percent of all software installed worldwide in 2005 was pirated or unlicensed, Microsoft said, citing a figure from the Business Software Alliance, an industry group. More information isÂ available here.Â
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But don't just blame Vista New technology such as Windows Vista and IP v6 may solve some security problems but will bring new security threats as well, according to a senior Cisco security expert.â¦
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Are you convinced that Windows environments are less expensive to own and operate than Linux computers? Martin Taylor, the manager behind Microsoftâs anti-Linux strategy, believes the companyâs Get The
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But some progress has been made Review Microsoft has gone out on a limb to promote Vista not merely as "the most secure version of Windows ever" (every recent version is marketed with that tired slogan), but for the first time as an adequately secure version of Windows. "We've got the message and we've done our homework", the company says. So let's see if the reality lives up to the marketing hype.â¦
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Stoopid human Improved technology and design alone will not be enough to keep Windows Vista and Office 2007 users safe from hackers and identity thieves, according to Bill Gates.â¦