The "facts" on Microsoft's anti-spyware

By Ellen Messmer, NetworkWorld.com, 03/08/06

When Microsoft starts handing out "fact sheets," it's time to pay attention, because the Redmond giant can be hard to pin down on such things when it's developing a new operating system or application. But in the "fact sheet" for "Microsoft Windows Defender Beta 2," the second beta version of its anti-spyware software, Microsoft is putting its thoughts down on paper for us. If you're in the anti-spyware business yourself, it probably reads like a declaration of war, a fact not lost on some competitors.

Microsoft's "fact sheet" tells us Windows Defender in beta is now "integrated" with Internet Explorer 6 and 7 on Windows XP SP2 as well as Windows Server 2003 SP1. In its final form, Defender will be part of the upcoming Vista operating system, with updates provided as a service when Vista ships later this year.

One of the main questions is whether competing anti-spyware programs from other vendors will work well on top of Vista. No facts out about that yet. But there's one hard, cold fact of life for competitors as concerns Defender. They are facing a D-day kind of battle over market turf.

"Yes, there's a reason for concern," says Rick Greenwood, chief technology officer at Shavlik Technologies, which makes the NetChk patch-management products and has gotten into anti-spyware as well over the past year. "It would be foolish to belive Microsoft isn't going to have an impact on this market."

One "fact" mentioned in Microsoft's fact sheet on Defender Beta 2 is that Microsoft customers will be able to join an "opt-in network" for sharing information about "unknown spyware" -- at least unknown to Microsoft. Through it they can submit potential spyware to Microsoft, learn about submissions from others, which should "help them decide what to do even before Microsoft analysts evalaute the spyware," according to Microsoft. There will even be "voting network participation" so users can vote to on how they are handling the potential spyware.

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