Microsoft Tests Security Features, Amid String of Windows Attacks
Microsoft Corp. is testing whether several computer-security technologies, including virus protection, would improve customers' perceptions of Windows, suggesting the technologies could one day become part of the operating system.
Many Windows users have been frustrated by attacks on Microsoft software, most recently this week's "worm" outbreak, dubbed Blaster or LovSan. Wednesday, computer users world-wide continued to grapple with the worm.
The virus was first reported in the U.S. on Monday and spread across the globe as businesses opened Tuesday and users logged on. Wednesday, China's Ruixing Computer Co. said it received more than 1,000 phone calls from computer users asking for help, the country's official Xinhua news agency reported. Late Wednesday, security firm Symantec Corp. said the pace of infections appeared to be slowing, with a 30% to 40% decline in the number of new reports of infected systems on Tuesday compared with Monday.
The Microsoft trial, dubbed PC Satisfaction, will study "how much more satisfied Windows customers are when they feel confident about the security of their PC and the safety of their data and personal information," according to an invitation to beta testers for the technologies being used in the trial. Beta testing likely began in mid May, based on testers' e-mail posted to the trial's support site. The invitation was posted on ActiveWin.com, a Web site focused on Microsoft news and products.
A spokesman for the Redmond, Wash., software giant, Darin Linnman , of public-relations firm Waggener Edstrom, confirmed Microsoft is holding the trial but declined to discuss its product plans for the technologies or the trial's details.
So far, Microsoft isn't testing a product, he said, just customer attitudes. The PC Satisfaction trial uses a number of technologies that aren't made by Microsoft. Notably, it uses Command antivirus software, a product from Authentium Inc. of Jupiter, Fla., not technology from GeCAD Software SRL, a Romanian antivirus company Microsoft acquired in June. The trial is using a personal firewall from Tiny Software Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., not the firewall included in Windows XP, because it's more advanced, Mr. Linnman said.
Industry watchers have been expecting Microsoft to enter the high-growth security software arena since it formed the Security Business Unit in March 2002 to spearhead product expansion there. The unit is also charged with improving the security of all Microsoft products under the company's Trustworthy Computing initiative.
Microsoft's security product effort got new attention in June when the company said it would buy GeCAD Software with the intent of eventually selling customers virus protection as a paid subscription service.
But Microsoft appears to have something larger in mind: a soup-to-nuts computer-security service for Windows desktops. Such a service would pose a major threat to companies like Symantec, the maker of Norton security software, the leader in the consumer market, and Network Associates Inc., which makes the popular McAfee security software.
"We believe that the PC Satisfaction trial, in its current form, represents a direct competitor to integrated security and utility solutions from Symantec and Network Associates," warned U.S. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster in a July 15 research note. "While the timing and form of a Microsoft antivirus solution remains unclear, we had not expected Microsoft to have an alpha trial of an integrated desktop security product already under way."
Mr. Munster doesn't own stock in Symantec, Network Associates or Microsoft, and he said his firm doesn't provide investment banking services to them.
Network Associates was more optimistic. "Any efforts that Microsoft makes to embed security technology to secure the desktop is certainly a welcome initiative," said Chris Thompson, vice president of product marketing. "I'd actually see it as market expanding." Microsoft is likely to provide a baseline of security that customers would then choose to enhance using added services from security-software companies, he said.
At Microsoft's annual meeting for analysts last month, Chairman Bill Gates said the company will expand its security-software offerings, citing some recent acquisitions. He acknowledged that some of Microsoft's new security technology could overlap with existing products from Symantec and others.
Mr. Gates said Microsoft's gains need not come at the expense of companies like Symantec because security is such a fast growing market. Revenue from consumer antivirus software licenses and services, by far the largest consumer security market, totaled about $720 million in 2002 and is growing at a compound annual growth rate of about 18%, according to research firm Gartner Group.
As such, it's not a "zero-sum" game, he said, adding that Symantec remains a key Microsoft partner and has been apprised of the company's plans. Microsoft has long worked cooperatively with security companies to address technology issues and respond to security incidents. The company uses Network Associates' McAfee product to scan messages headed for Hotmail accounts.
Gartner security-software industry analyst John Pescatore said he expects Microsoft to include the security technologies in the next major version of Windows, which is code named Longhorn and expected out in 2005, and then sell subscriptions for the continual updates required to stop new attack types.
微软测试Windows软件的网络安全性能
微软(Microsoft Corp., MSFT)正在就几项电脑安全技术（包括病毒防御等）能否提高客户对Windows软件的认知度而进行测试，这表明有朝一日这些技术都将会成为该操作系统的组成部分。
许多Windows软件的使用者可能会为微软公司的此举而感到欢欣鼓舞，因为他们所使用的微软产品一直遭到攻击，最近一次就是本周爆发的"冲击波"(Blaster)蠕虫病毒。但微软的这个举动对于安全软件行业来说将是一个重大的打击，它们将首次面对来自这位操作系统霸主的挑战。
此次测试被称为"PC Satisfaction"，它将研究有多少微软产品的用户会因为对他们个人电脑、数据和个人信息的安全性感到放心而变得更为满意。
微软公司的发言人Darin Linnman承认公司正在进行测试，但拒绝透露这些技术的产品计划或测试的细节。
他表示，目前为止微软公司并没有测试一项产品，而仅仅是对客户的态度进行调查。此次测试计划所使用的一系列技术并不是由微软公司自己制作的。例如，它使用了Authentium Inc.的防病毒软件"Command"。而且还使用了来自Tiny Software Inc.的个人防火墙产品，而不是"Windows XP"所自带的防火墙，因为相比之下前者更为先进。
行业观察人士一直认为，微软将会进入高增长的安全软件领域，因为它在2002年3月份成立了安全业务子公司，充当开拓这一领域的先头部队。
微软公司在安全防护产品上的努力在今年6月份得到了新的关注，当时公司宣布将收购GeCAD Software，并最终将以付费订用服务的形式开始销售客户防毒产品。
但微软公司的野心似乎还不止于此：它想要为Windows界面提供全面的电脑安全服务。这样一种服务将会对一些公司构成重大的威胁，比如"诺顿"(Norton)防毒软件的制造商赛门铁克(Symantec)公司和"McAfee"安全软件的生产商网络联盟公司(Network Associates Inc., NET)。
在上个月微软与分析师召开的年度会议上，公司董事长比尔?盖茨(Bill Gates)表示，公司将会拓展安全软件的产品种类，并提到了近期的一些收购交易。他承认，微软公司的一些新安全技术将会与现有的一些公司如赛门铁克的产品发生撞车。
