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Microsoft to McAfee: Stop Lying to the Public

Steven Parker   on 21 October 2006 - 10:57 · 47 comments & 36317 views

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A statement released to the press very early this morning from Ben Fathi, Microsoft's corporate vice president for security technology, gives some subtle but clear indications that, if McAfee wants to take its claims against Windows Vista security features off the streets and into a more formal setting, Microsoft might be willing to make a battle of it.

"It's unfortunate that McAfee's lawyers are making these kinds of inaccurate and inflammatory statements," Fathi's statement opens, apparently referring specifically to claims made against Microsoft's forthcoming 64-bit kernel protection scheme before the European Commission, and not to open letters from McAfee executives published by the Financial Times and ZDNet.

While McAfee and Symantec have been complaining publicly that Microsoft's new architectural choices lock them out of being able to provide heuristic security features for anti-virus and anti-malware products, privately, McAfee's complaint is that Microsoft is failing to provide its partners with the information necessary to enable them to alert users to vulnerabilities using their own tools, rather than Microsoft's.

European news sources this morning cite McAfee attorneys in Brussels as saying that Microsoft has failed to live up to its "hollow assurances" of providing this information to security partners.

Fathi's statement continues with a timeline, down to the minute, of delivery times when McAfee received documentation and sample code from Microsoft last Monday and Tuesday. This code apparently gives vendors new APIs for providing users with their own security alerts, in place of Microsoft's. A new build of Vista, Fathi said, which incorporates this third-party alert system, was delivered to McAfee last Wednesday, and a tutorial briefing was given Thursday at noon.

McAfee's original complaints before the EC, however, pre-date this timeline by weeks.

View: Full Article @ Betanews

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#1 Neobond on 21 Oct 2006 - 11:00
Prime example of their selling points. Mcafee and Symantec help us be insecure by securing with their own programs.

Kinda like punching someone in the face and then giving you a tissue to stop the nose bleed.
#2 EduardValencia on 24 Oct 2006 - 17:59
Everyone united in favour of microsoft, - My eyes drop a tear of happiness-

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