Microsoft Defends Computer Users Against Malware.
Microsoft Corporation has always had to deal with problems with malware or bots that install on a user’s computer. They have recently cracked down on the malware giant Waledac. (see Microsoft blog for further detail .) Microsoft is a founding member of the Botnet Task Force, a public-private partnership to join industry and government in the fight against bots. This group has “executed a major botnet takedown of Waledac, a large and well-known “spambot,”” according to the Microsoft Blog Post. The Wall Street Journal has a story on the case (WSJ subscription required).
Though most corporations fight this in various ways (Barracuda Networks , N2H2 now Mcafee, Axway or Tumbleweed products plus others more well known such as Symantec), most home users do not have the same resources available. The common user generally has Anti-Virus software from when they purchased their computer, but typically don’t update the subscriptions causing 59% of the worldwide computer community’s pcs to have malware installed.
Most of my experience in the field has led me to try to find freeware products to combat the attack of malware, viruses, bots and worms. One of the newest for the new Microsoft Operating systems, such as Vista and Windows 7, is Microsoft’s Security Essentials. This new and powerful tool is giving the typical end user a high level of protection against such attacks.
Microsoft is generally despised by people who, in general, do not like large corporations who earn a profit on items they feel should be either free or cheap. Richard Stallman pioneered the idea about free software and continues to be an activist on this issue (GNU Project and free software license). Eric Raymond authored a book, Cathedral and the Bazaar, which compares and contrasts freely distributed vs. corporate software, giving clear examples of how the computer community functions between corporate software and the open source (freeware) community. Though he has great points in this book on the speed of the open source community to respond, this group does not have the same resources as a Microsoft Corporation to take dramatic steps like what was accomplished against Waledac.
Just maybe the best for the computer market today is to have a good mix of software from both major players in the industry and freeware. With this in mind, maybe we need to view Microsoft as more of a leader versus the enemy.
Author: James Brun, Director of IT, Beckfield College