Tracking the Malware Battle ISPs and AV Vendors: Having Users' Backs Andy Patrizio
Having Users' Backs
Hence, a new strategy. More ISPs are giving away an antivirus program just in the hope customers will use it.
AOL, the largest ISP in the country, had sold antivirus software for $2.95 a month, and got two million out of its 23 million subscribers to sign up. So the company gave the software away starting in 2004, and it worked, according to Peter Firstbrook, research director for Gartner.
"Their spam went down, their bandwidth use went down and calls to the helpdesk went down after they began giving VirusScan away," he told internetnews.com. Comcast, another major ISP, also offers McAfee VirusScan for free, while EarthLink offers Protection Control Center.
And the ISPs are finally getting tough with their customers.
In 2004, Comcast began to warn its customers that they would be banished if they didn't keep their systems clean. Now EarthLink is getting tough with its users.
The makers of anti-malware software are also taking charge, trying to leave less in the hands of users. Software is updating itself more aggressively, with less reliance on human intervention.
"I know that this year, the security vendors figured out that consumers simply weren't doing their due diligence to protect themselves and changed their offerings from being software the user deploys and updates, and made it a service to automate it," said Lambert.
Webroot, developer of the popular Spy Sweeper software, is also working on improving automation while keeping its software in the background. "The first generation of anti-malware was extremely in your face telling you everything," said Gerhard Eschelbeck, CTO of Webroot.
"The design of anti-malware is extremely important, because you want to keep on top of your machine and know it works, but you don't want to deal with it constantly," he added. "You buy your PC for doing real work, not satisfying your anti-malware product. We see this all the time."
Symantec (Quote), McAfee (Quote), and other security software vendors have included increased automation for updating, scanning, and cleaning in their new products.
"We want to make sure it doesn't require a whole lot of consumer action," said Hoang. "We want to make recommendations to consumers for gray areas like spyware and adware, but for more black-and-white issues of known malware, we'll just handle the issue automatically."
One of the widely touted features of Microsoft Windows Vista is its security. The company was promising far better security in the new OS, but Webroot's internal testing has found it lacking. In testing 25 pieces of known spyware on a Vista machine, only four infections were detected.
"We were surprised to see the low rate of detection by Windows Defender on Vista," said Eschelbeck. "While Vista has improved security quite a bit, there are still quite a few holes that need to be plugged over time."
So it looks like the cycle will continue unabated. Anti-malware vendors, once thought to be doomed in Vista's wake, will continue its tit-for-tat battle, as certain as death and taxes, with the crooks they're fighting.
