Martin Spedding's Blog

Adventures in a disconnected world

A question of trust

I was speaking with one of my collegues today about XP SP2 and he noticed the security centre and said that he expected that eventually MS will come out with their own anti virus software. He then said,: "Even though I am an MSCE, I would not trust MS and I would still install 3rd party anti virus software." I thought this was an interesting point of view because when you think about it the anti virus software companies have a vested interest that there are lots of viruses, as the more virues there are the more software they sell. On the other hand MS suffers an image problem when ever a virus causes problems. So Microsoft has a vested interest to ensure that the number of virius problems is minimal and the anti viruses companies have an interest that there are more viruses. On that basis why trust MS anti virus software less than software from a 3rd party ?
Posted: Jun 24 2004, 01:19 PM by MartinSp | with 2 comment(s)

Comments

Steven said:

Interesting point of view. I wonder if Microsoft might consider the possibility of making their AV product free to those who want it. Of course, they'd risk legal challenges if they bundles it with the OS. But, if they simply made it available for download, then they could save their ass and build trust in their customer base. The AV software itself is pretty trivial; it's the security database that's a continual resource drain. But in the long run, Microsoft would make out on this exponentially.

What say Ye, Microsoft?
# June 24, 2004 7:42 AM

Scott Allen said:

IMHO, it would not be an issue of trust, but one of focus. AV vendors who specialize try to be the best at what they do and even be proactive. Microsoft could be the best, if they wanted to be, but I wouldn't be comfortable to see a 3 week gap between a new virus in the wild and a new database from MS. That would tell me the AV protection is an afterthought. Know what I mean?
# June 24, 2004 11:35 AM