SuperSite Blog : Security

Microsoft Security Essentials Update

pthurrott — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:03:11 GMT

Microsoft previously reported that its new Security Essentials anti-malware solution (see my review) had garnered 1.5 million downloads in its first week of availability. Well, the numbers keep going up: After two weeks, the download total stood at 2.6 million. Also, the company tells me that Microsoft Security Essentials has achieved ICSA Labs Anti-Virus Certification on Vista Ultimate 32-bit and Vista Ultimate 64-bit in the Desktop/Server AV Detection & Cleaning Testing criteria. This certification builds on its October certification from West Coast Labs.

Over 1.5 Million Microsoft Security Essentials Downloads in One Week

pthurrott — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:59:01 GMT

And I have to admit, I'm surprised it's not higher. Here's the word, from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog:

Now that Microsoft Security Essentials is generally available to consumers in 19 countries, we've had a chance to go over the data, and there are some very interesting results. Just in the first week we saw well over 1.5 million downloads of Microsoft Security Essentials, but the price (free to Windows users) is hard to beat!

Computers reporting detections up to October 6: almost four million detections on 535,752 distinct machines. The detections are eight times the machine count because many computers are infected with multiple threats.

Microsoft Security Essentials is available in 8 languages and 19 markets at RTM, which covers a lot of the PC using world. The geographic distribution of detections so far still closely follows the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta countries, and is ramping up in other countries that use the 8 languages.

The most astonishing statistic: Fully 44 percent of all MSE downloads are happening in Windows 7. That's amazing, given that Windows 7 isn't even broadly available yet. And one third of those installs are 64-bit.

Today Only: Free ZoneAlarm Firewall Pro

pthurrott — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:30:53 GMT

To "celebrate" this month's regularly-scheduled security patch release ("Patch Tuesday") Zone Alarm is giving away its Zone Alarm Pro Firewall software (normally $39.95). The offer is available today (October 13, until midnight ET) only and includes a one-year license to the software for use on up to three PCs. Head on over to the Zone Alarm web site for more info and the free download.

Thanks to David S. for the tip.

As Expected, Security Software Makers Mock Microsoft's Free AV

pthurrott — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:17:08 GMT

You had to see this one coming. They did it when Microsoft shipped Windows Live OneCare and then raced to create their own me-too products. But what will Symantec and McAfee do now that Microsoft is providing Windows users with free AV? Whine, of course. IDG News reports:

"Security Essentials won't change anything," said Jens Meggers, Symantec's vice president of engineering. "Microsoft has a really bad track record in security," he added, ticking off several ventures into consumer security that the giant has tried, including Windows Defender, an anti-spyware tool bundled with Windows Vista and Windows 7; the released-monthly Malicious Software Removal Tool; and OneCare.

I'd remind people that Symantec still sells its OneCare rip-off, Norton 360, right next to its normal Norton AV and Norton Internet Security suites. You know, it's the same. But different.

In a company blog, another Symantec employee called Security Essentials a "rerun" of OneCare, and said: "At the end of the day, Microsoft Security Essentials is a rerun no one should watch."

Ah boy. I wonder if that guy works on Norton 360.

I think Microsoft Security Essentials is excellent, but then I also exercise common sense online. From what I can tell, that's the best defense.

Now available: Microsoft Security Essentials

pthurrott — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:57:01 GMT

The public version of Microsoft Security Essentials is now available from the Microsoft web site:

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times.

My review of Microsoft Security Essentials is also available.

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta updated

pthurrott — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:42:19 GMT

If you're using the Microsoft Security Essentials Beta, you'll notice an update in Windows Update this morning. It's unclear what's changed under the hood (the referenced KB article below doesn't yet exist), but there's a new tray icon at least. Here are some before and after shots...

Firefox 3.5.1

pthurrott — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 23:58:23 GMT

Not a huge deal, but Mozilla has bumped up Firefox 3.5 a bit in the past 24 hours.

What’s New in Firefox 3.5.1

Firefox 3.5.1 fixes the following issues:

Several security issues.

Several stability issues.

An issue that was making Firefox take a long time to load on some Windows systems.

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. You may also be interested in the Firefox 3.5 release notes for a list of changes in the previous version.

Don't forget: Today's the day for Morro

pthurrott — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:10:41 GMT

If you're looking to snag the initial beta version of Microsoft Security Essentials from the source, here are a few things to be aware of:

US, Israel, and Brazil only (China in 30 days)
Public downloads will be capped at 75,000
Download will be made available around 9 am PDT/12 pm EDT
Requires Windows XP (32-bit only), Windows Vista or Windows 7

For more info, please check out my overview of the public beta.

Please, no emails or posts about the torrent versions. Obviously, it's out there. Obviously, downloading a security product via torrent is ... well, dumb.

Early Morro shots leak

pthurrott — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:36:52 GMT

Neowin has posted a couple of shots of an older Morro build. Again, I can't really comment except to note that this build is already out of date.

Microsoft will soon unveil free virus software

pthurrott — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:17:35 GMT

So this puts me in an awkward spot. I can't really discuss this too much further at the moment, but since Reuters dropped the ball…

* Microsoft getting ready to unveil free anti-virus service

* Software maker says will soon put beta version on website

* Company employees testing it internally

Microsoft Corp is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for PCs that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is now testing an early version of the product with its own employees and that it will "soon" make a trial version available via its website.

Microsoft has said that it will only include basic features for fighting viruses, which would likely make it comparable to the least-expensive products sold by Symantec and McAfee.

So, one might reasonably expect me to be on top of this and ready to publish shots/info whenever Microsoft goes public with it. Let's just say it wasn't supposed to be today. And still isn't, until I hear otherwise. More info when possible...

Panda now offers free antivirus

pthurrott — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:37:59 GMT

Panda now offers free antivirus and is banking on the "cloud computing" trend of late in the process:

Panda Security, a leading provider of IT security solutions, today announced the global beta release of Panda Cloud Antivirus, the industry's first and only free cloud-based antivirus thin-client with 50 percent less impact on PC performance compared to the industry average. Consumers can download the free product from http://www.cloudantivirus.com.

With Panda Cloud Antivirus, Panda Security is introducing a new protection model that utilizes a thin-client agent and server architecture which processes and blocks malware more efficiently than locally installed signature-based products. By moving the entire malware scanning and determination process to the cloud and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus is able to provide advanced protection against new and unknown viruses with a lightweight thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources.

Traditional antivirus products for PCs rely on multiple locally installed technologies which intercept each file at different layers (entry vector, file system and execution) and scan them using various techniques (antivirus, heuristics, intrusion prevention, behavioral analysis, etc.). This process results in heavy usage of local PC memory and CPU resources, negatively impacting performance. The Panda Cloud Antivirus thin-client agent introduces a new philosophy for on-access asynchronous cloud-scanning. It combines local detection technologies with real-time cloud-scanning to maximize protection while minimizing resource consumption. This optimized model blocks malicious programs as they attempt to execute, while managing less dangerous operations via non-intrusive background scans.

Panda Cloud Antivirus includes local and remote antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, heuristics and goodware cache, while only consuming an average of 17 MB of RAM and 50 percent of the PC performance impact as compared to the industry average.

Looks interesting. I wonder if this works in Windows 7. Checking...

Update: This thing only works on 32-bit versions of Windows (!!) Wah-wah-waaaaaahhh.... FAIL.

Security software changes in Windows 7 RC

pthurrott — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:05:30 GMT

I had noticed in one of the previous post-Beta interim builds of Windows 7 that ESET NOD32 was throwing up an Action Center message to the effect that it was incompatible with the way security software communicates its status; previously, NOD32 worked just fine. In the RC build, this has been formalized with an appearance by the familiar Program Compatibility Assistant window shown here. There's no fix as of yet, but I suspect this change will affect more than just NOD32. I will check.

I don't see any documentation about what's changed with regards to security software, but I'll ask Microsoft during our Windows 7 RC briefing early next week.

UPDATE: I should note that this is NOD32 3.x. I've been told that 4.0 works without complaint.

Microsoft posts April 2009 security updates

pthurrott — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:00:55 GMT

Nice and regular-like...

As part of Microsoft’s commitment to deliver security updates on a predictable and consistent monthly schedule, Microsoft released eight security bulletins today, which addressed 23 vulnerabilities in Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server.

Microsoft’s April Bulletin Release

MS09-009 (Maximum severity of Critical): This update resolves a newly discovered, privately reported and a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Excel. This update received a 1 – Consistent Exploit Code Likely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

MS09-010 (Maximum severity of Critical): This update resolves two publicly disclosed vulnerabilities and two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft WordPad and Microsoft Office Text Converters. This update received a 1 – Consistent Exploit Code Likely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

MS09-011 (Maximum severity of Critical): This update resolves a newly discovered and privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft DirectX. This update received a 2 – Inconsistent Exploit Code Likely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

MS09-012 (Maximum severity of Important): This update resolves four publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows. This update received a 1 – Consistent Exploit Code Likely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

MS09-013 (Maximum severity of Critical): This update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows HTTP Services (WinHTTP). This update received a 1 – Consistent Exploit Code Likely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

MS09-014 (Maximum severity of Critical): This update resolves four privately reported vulnerabilities and two publicly disclosed vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. This update received a 1 – Consistent Exploit Code Likely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

MS09-015 (Maximum severity of Moderate): This update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Windows SearchPath function. This update received a 2 – Inconsistent Exploit Code Likely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

MS09-016 (Maximum severity of Important): This update resolves a privately reported vulnerability and a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server and Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG), Medium Business Edition (MBE). This update received a 3 – Functioning Exploit Code Unlikely rating from Microsoft’s Exploitability Index.

Comprehensive bulletin information is also available at Microsoft’s Security Update Archive. Also, Microsoft recommends that all customers sign up for Microsoft Update and enable its Automatic Updates functionality. This will enable customers to receive all updates available this month and help make their systems more secure.

Forefront 'Stirling' update

pthurrott — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:49:16 GMT

Microsoft has provided the following update about its next generation Forefront security product, codenamed "Stirling."

Today, Microsoft is providing an update on release timing for Forefront code name "Stirling," an integrated security suite that combines the next-generation Forefront solutions for endpoint, messaging & collaboration, and network protection with a central management console for easy administration and enterprise-wide visibility.

We will begin the release of the "Stirling" security suite with the delivery of Forefront Server Security for Exchange and Threat Management Gateway (the next generation of ISA Server) in the fourth quarter of 2009.

"Stirling" management, Forefront Client Security 2.0 and Forefront Security for SharePoint will be released in the first half of 2010.

We will ship Beta 2 of "Stirling" soon and in the second half of this year we will deliver a release candidate.

We have been working closely with customers in our Technology Adoption Program to gather their feedback about how we can deliver the best experience and value with "Stirling." One of the top customer requests was adding interoperability with third party security solutions. To this end, we plan to increase our focus on one of the unique features of "Stirling", Security Assessment Sharing (SAS.) SAS correlates security events from different Forefront products and third party solutions, enabling administrators to quickly investigate and remediate security events. We will provide information about interoperability partners in the near future.

Additionally, we are investing significantly in a behavior-based technology called Dynamic Signature Service. This will complement advanced heuristics, dynamic translation and real time application scanning for kernel level malware in "Stirling," helping deliver a comprehensive approach to endpoint protection for zero day attacks.

We encourage customers to download and try out the current "Stirling" beta to learn more about the benefits of an integrated security suite. Customers investing in Forefront solutions today will have an easy migration path to "Stirling."

Microsoft discontinues Equipt

pthurrott — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:57:50 GMT

No big surprise here, but at least they're doing right by the fools that did subscribe to this service:

Microsoft recently announced that it will be offering consumers a no-cost, anti-malware-focused security solution and will discontinue Windows Live OneCare. As a result of this new offering and the discontinuation of OneCare, Microsoft Equipt, which includes a subscription to OneCare, will be discontinued after April 30, 2009.

We apologize for any inconvenience this transition may cause you. To ensure that eligible Equipt subscribers are credited for the unused portion of their subscription and will continue to have full use of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 after April 30, we are offering them a:

Prorated refund for unused months of their Equipt subscription.

Free copy of Office Home and Student 2007.

If you are an active Equipt subscriber who paid for a one-year subscription, please complete the Equipt Refund Request Form on the Subscriber Center to request your prorated refund of Equipt and a free copy of Office Home and Student 2007.

If you purchased Equipt in the US and have not yet installed Equipt, please request your refund through the 45-day Money Back Guarantee program.

If retail copies of Equipt are ever heavily discounted, this might be an even cheaper way to get into Office Home and Student, I guess.