Say you buy a car, but have to pay extra for door locks, brakes and air bags. That’s what today’s home users are doing to secure their computers.
Point products to protect your systems from Trojan horses, viruses, DOS attacks, identity theft and worms sell on average for $50 a pop.Tool through its acquisition of GeCAD Software in June
So when Microsoft introduced XP with a built-in firewall, I thought it would be a good thing. Until the firewall prevented my anti-virus software from getting its updates. After a while, users just turned off the XP firewall so they could use more robust firewalls that did a better job catching stuff like outbound worms, viruses and spyware code calling home.
Now, Microsoft is at it again, offering a free Malicious Software Removal
and a beta anti-spyware tool through its acquisition of Giant Software in December.
These new developments have analysts and security companies all a twitter
about Microsoft squeezing them out of the market.
But I say, if Microsoft can make things easier for home users, let ’em try.
What I don’t want to see is another interoperability nightmare like the XP firewall. Nor do I want to see Microsoft charging for add-on security, seeing as it created this problem in the first place.
