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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Thursday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week –
2/15/2006 |
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Microsoft jumps into the antivirus
marketplace with 2 new products – Windows Onecare
Live and Windows Defender. Last week
I talked about how computer viruses are now 20 years old, and if you use the
internet, you need to have an antivirus program. Otherwise not only are you a
danger to yourself – you’re a danger to others. In the
old days there were a couple antivirus companies – Norton and McAfee,
and today Norton has changed its name to Symantec, and there are a couple
dozen other newer antivirus program vendors that have emerged over the years.
The problem they have all had to face – is protecting the Microsoft
operating system – which is proprietary, which means they really
don’t know anything about it, because Microsoft wrote it and Microsoft
reveals nothing about it. So this was a catch 22 from the beginning. I believe
I have seen most the major antivirus programs fail at one time or another. Another
problem has been the emergence of so many other type of malware programs
– programs which can do damage to you or your computer – like
spyware, adware, browser hijackers, phishers trying
to steal your identity, and other bad programs, which are all written by
hackers. Microsoft
has been under a lot of criticism in recent years about security holes in its
products, so now Microsoft is trying to do something about it. Just last
week Microsoft announced Windows Onecare Live, it’s
first true antivirus program, which also does system tuneups
and has a backup/restore function. This product is available for free in a
Betatest for a few months, and after that it will
be extremely competitively priced, $ 49.95 for 3 computers, which is much
less than other vendors. For
several months Microsoft has been Beta testing another anti-malware program
– Microsoft Anti-Spyware, and just this morning they announced the new
version of this program as Windows
Defender which again you can download the betatest
for free at http://www.microsoft.com . This program addresses the other
problems that Windows Onecare doesn’t, and
also contains some great system information tools. It is
Microsoft’s stated objective to combine these two programs into one
Internet Security suite in the near future, and then market it as a single
catch-all Microsoft Internet Security program. I started
using Microsoft Antispyware when it first came out.
Last week I installed Windows Onecare live and
dropped the other anti-virus program I was using, and so I am one of millions
of Beta-testers right now. Why am I
doing this? First, I
believe Microsoft, being the author of the operating system and programs which
all the malware programs are attacking – is in the best position to
know how to defend against them.
They know the intricacies of the millions of lines of programming code
in their software; 3rd party companies have no way of learning
this. Two
– I believe it is Microsoft’s responsibility to provide these
utilities to their users, and they should have done this
decades ago. Three
– I don’t believe the 3rd party vendors of these
products are doing a very good job. You can
download and try these programs for free, and maybe when your own current
antivirus program comes up for renewal, you may consider switching.
It’s your choice – but remember –
you have to be using something, otherwise you and anyone you email is a
sitting duck. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2005 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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