By Kurt Seifried (kurt@seifried.org)

How prophetic, Friday the thirteenth. I write a nice article on Microsoft Corp.’s PatchGuard and Symantec Corp.’s response to it. It gets published in the morning.

And then Microsoft Corp. changes their mind.

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By Kurt Seifried (kurt@seifried.org)

A fitting entry for Friday the thirteenth. We start the day with the first of a series of articles on the various security risks that will be introduced by Microsoft Corp.’s flagship operating system Windows Vista that many people have not yet considered. So without further adieu let’s begin.
A blog entry was recently posted to the official Symantec Corp. security blog:

By Oliver Friedrichs (Symantec Corp.)
“I have to say that it is not surprising to see that Microsoft is countering the claims (that Symantec, McAfee, and others are making) that Windows Vista will hinder innovation, while putting consumers at risk. In fact, I think that it is to be expected. Some of the arguments that are being put forth in their favor are rather uninformed, exceptionally broad, and disingenuous. They have been presented in such a way as to position security vendors as though we have for decades preyed on the weak and stolen from the poor and with the emergence of Windows Vista, freedom from this tyranny is in sight. The reality is, we offer a real service—protection from real threats that will otherwise result in real losses—and this is by no means a protection racket. In any case, it’s not my intent to try and dissuade that part of the population that really thinks this; but, I will try to offer some insight to those who would consider themselves technologists.”

For commentary and a link to the article read on

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