{"id":9830,"date":"2009-10-01T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-01T10:34:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-10-01T12:34:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-01T10:34:00","slug":"free-ms-security-essentials-gets-mixed-reception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/9830-free-ms-security-essentials-gets-mixed-reception.html","title":{"rendered":"Free MS Security Essentials gets mixed reception"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Security Essentials<\/a> (MSE) was made available on Tuesday. The free anti-malware service was aimed at consumers who want protection from security threats, but do not wish to part with money.<\/p>\n

Microsoft said that it hopes this will develop a culture of “anti-virus adoption” among consumers. Here’s what some of the big players in the anti-virus field had to say.<\/p>\n

In a report from Ars Technica<\/a>, four major anti-virus companies weighed in with their opinions on MSE; namely Symantec, ESET, Avast and AVG.<\/p>\n

Symantec politely applauded MS efforts to heighten consumer awareness of computer security, before declaring that MSE doesn’t stand a chance in the market. Symantec representatives pointed out that MSE is based on the MS OneCare product, which also wasn’t very good.<\/p>\n

ESET shrugged of the introduction of MSE, on the grounds that it does not compete with their security products. ESET’s Christopher Dale said that “basic, but free, protection is better than no protection.” He then launched into a marketing drone routine touting the benefits of ESET products over free alternatives.<\/p>\n

Avast CEO Vince Steckler was optimistic: “We are glad to see Microsoft joining us in offering free anti-virus\/security protection to users.” He continued by saying that more people use free Avast than paid-for solutions combined, indicating that consumers have decided security protection should be free. He believes that free users should not be subjected to inferior products.<\/p>\n

AVG adopted the paranoid-cynic stance, suggesting that MS will push MSE onto consumers through as many anti-competitive practices as it can dream up. Siobhan MacDermott, VP of Public Policy for AVG said “On paper it makes sense, but in reality, we believe this will force consumers to unwittingly enter into a situation that makes them more vulnerable.”<\/p>\n

MacDermott alluded to experts whom apparently agree that “the biggest nemesis to Windows was not the vulnerability of its code but rather the popularity of the operating system. If Microsoft leverages the power of its OS market to rapidly create a large community of MSE users, we believe those customers will be doubly vulnerable.”<\/p>\n

So, in this case, paid-for and free anti-virus developers are divided on whether or not MSE is a good thing. It’s early days for the product at the moment, and if any cracks in the system exist, they are likely to rear their head soon.<\/p>\n

Microsoft Security Essentials<\/strong><\/a> – comments and views<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Security Essentials receives mixed reception from other anti-virus makers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}