February 21, 2005 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Garter Research recently released a stinging analysis of Microsoft’s approach to security. While Microsoft has announced they will enter the anti-virus and anti-spyware markets, Garter’s Neil MacDonald sees the move as something of a failure of vision, stating, “Microsoft's overriding goal should be to eliminate the need for AV and AS products, not simply to enter the market with lookalike products at lower prices.”
Also, Microsoft will soon release Internet Explorer 7.0 which promises to be more secure and more integrated with XP SP2 but the new software will not be compatible with Microsoft 2000. This will force users to upgrade to XP if they wish to be secure. This drew another rebuke from MacDonald, “If Microsoft wishes to be seen as a responsible industry leader in maintaining security for its products and its customers, it should provide IE 7.0 for Windows 2000 users. Furthermore, instead of making more evolutionary security improvements to IE, Microsoft should announce that it will fundamentally rearchitect IE with security in mind.”
Microsoft may not wish to face the music now, but as security becomes an increasingly important issue the Redmond software giant will be forced by sheer economics to address their lack of vision.
