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Microsoft Wrestling With Regulators, McAfee
David Utter
Staff Writer
2006-10-23
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The Gartner research firm believes Microsoft will need years to make updates to the Vista operating system to satisfy antitrust regulators in Europe and Korea; Microsoft also responded to harsh criticism from McAfee.
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Microsoft has been stung by complaints from security software makers over the timeliness with which it delivers information on Vista. Third party firms need certain information to ensure their products work to protect the OS, but there is some concern that Microsoft prefers to keep its OneCare service as the top choice for Vista users.
The company responded to McAfee's statement that "independent security companies that consumers rely on for computer protection has seen little indication that Microsoft intends to live up to the promises it made last week," according to a Reuters report:
"It's unfortunate that McAfee's lawyers are making these kinds of inaccurate and inflammatory statements," said Ben Fathi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's security technology unit.
He said Microsoft was being even-handed in developing the needed software, which would happen "in the months ahead."
During those months ahead, Microsoft will have to make changes to Vista that permit products from independent software vendors (ISVs) to work with the new operating system. Gartner provided an analysis of a couple of "changes with specific security implications":
PatchGuard, the protection mechanism for the kernel in the 64-bit version of Windows, has been highly problematic for some types of independent software vendors (ISVs) and their customers. Contrary to some press reports, Microsoft will not offer a mechanism for deactivating PatchGuard or a trusted mechanism for "kernel hooking"...
Microsoft has agreed to change the Windows Security Center - a clearinghouse for security-related status information that does not itself deliver any security functionality - so that ISVs can programmatically disable all Windows Security Center alerting for end users without the requirement for end-user intervention....The mechanism to disable Windows Security Center alerts must be architected - likely using signature-based technology - so that malicious software cannot deactivate it.
Despite the remaining issues that must be resolved to satisfy antitrust complaints from the European Commission and the Korean Fair Trade Commission, Microsoft has restated that Vista will be available to volume licensing customers in November 2006 and consumers in January 2007.
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Tag: Microsoft
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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