Microsoft To Address Spyware Threat?
Published: Friday, December 31, 2004 Online-Casinos.com
MICROSOFT TO ADDRESS SPYWARE THREAT?
How clean is your computer?
Last October, the U.S. National Cyber Security Alliance scanned computers in 329 homes in 22 states, then interviewed the owners. The survey found 80 percent of the PCs infested with spyware... and 90 percent of respondents had no idea what the programs did or even that they were there.
The deluge of spyware, which monitors Web-surfing habits and can steer users to sites they might otherwise never click to, has put the need to clean up the Internet in stark relief, reports a highly relevant story in USA Today this week.
What's more, it has set in motion the imminent re-alignment of some of tech's marquee players — Symantec, McAfee, Microsoft, America Online and Yahoo, among them.
"All of these players stand to lose if consumers go offline due to frustration," says Gene Munster, tech security analyst at Piper Jaffray. "What we're about to see is a period of experimentation in redistributing the burden for making the Internet secure."
For most of the year, AOL, EarthLink, Yahoo, MSN and others have moved aggressively to bundle more basic anti-virus and anti-spyware protection into Internet subscription services. Meanwhile, tech security suppliers with well-reviewed products, such as Trend Micro and Webroot, penetrated deeper into the mass market.
This month, Microsoft weighed in by buying anti-spyware maker Giant Company Software, reinforcing speculation that it plans to stake out a hefty chunk of the consumer tech security market. Meanwhile, Symantec, the leading anti-virus vendor, agreed to buy data storage company Veritas for $13 billion, at least partly to hedge against Microsoft's grab for its core business, analysts say.
With ISPs circling and Microsoft on the move, pressure is mounting on Symantec and McAfee, the No. 2 anti-virus supplier. Each is closing out red-hot years in consumer sales. Yet, each is scrambling for a strategy to stay relevant in a tumultuous consumer market.
One scenario fast taking shape involves ISPs emerging as consumer suppliers of basic anti-virus and anti-spyware protection.
In a flurry of activity this month, MSN, Comcast and Cox Communications each moved to add free anti-spyware protection to basic services. Last week, AOL began supplying SpyZapper anti-spyware for free; it already includes McAfee's VirusScan service, normally a $50 annual subscription, gratis to all its 22 million U.S. subscribers.
It's unclear how Symantec, McAfee and security specialists, such as Webroot and Lavasoft, will make out. The best could thrive by supplying tech anonymously — and at bulk rates — to ISPs.
"Who's going to want to pay for all this different stuff, if you can get it for free elsewhere?" says John Pescatore, vice president for Internet security at Gartner.
A retreat from expanding retail sales seems inevitable. Symantec's consumer revenue vaulted 63%, to $315 million, in its most recent quarter. McAfee's jumped 127%, to $116.7 million. Privately held Webroot's revenue doubled in each of the past five quarters, CEO David Moll says.
Spyware this year began to mushroom across the Internet. The USA Today says that Microsoft is acutely vulnerable, because spyware writers mainly look to exploit a technology, ActiveX, built into Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer browser.
Capitalizing on tech users' dissatisfaction with Internet Explorer, a group of mostly volunteer programmers last month released the free Firefox browser. Because it doesn't use ActiveX, Firefox repels most spyware, though it won't eliminate spyware already in place.
Firefox has been downloaded 11 million times since its debut, eating into Internet Explorer's long immovable 96% share of the browser market. By early December, it had dipped to 92%, says Web analytics firm WebSideStory.
"The severity of the problem is growing, with many computers being rendered useless by spyware," says Chris Hofmann, engineering director of Mozilla, the non-profit creator of Firefox. "It is from the pool of users who've become extremely frustrated with (Internet Explorer) that we see the greatest Firefox adoption."
On Dec. 16, Microsoft moved to stop that pool from growing by snapping up anti-spyware maker Giant. It plans to re-issue a free version of Giant's $30-per-year anti-virus service next month. Mike Nash, Microsoft's security business corporate vice president, declines to discuss plans beyond that.
Some industry experts expect Microsoft to bundle Giant's anti-spyware product with anti-virus technology it brought in-house 18 months ago with the purchase of a small Romanian company, GeCad.
