Microsoft offers free malware protection for Windows

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 04:48

IT Industry - Strategy

Microsoft has released in Australia free anti-malware software, Microsoft Security Essentials. It requires no registration, trials or renewals and will be available for download directly from Microsoft for Windows XP SP2 or SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7 including Windows XP mode on both x32 and x64 PCs.

According to Microsoft, Security Essentials has been independently certified by West Coast Labs, is backed by the company's global security response team and is built on the same core security technology found in the company's security solutions for businesses. However the Security Essentials web page contains little information as to the scope of protection offered by the product. The only limitation appears to be that users must have genuine Windows software in order to run it.

"Consumers have told us that they want the protection of real-time security software but we know that too many are either unwilling or unable to pay for it, and so end up unprotected," said Amy Barzdukas, general manager for consumer security at Microsoft. "With Microsoft Security Essentials, consumers can get high-quality protection that is easy to get and easy to use — and it won't get in their way."

By making Microsoft Security Essentials easy to get and easy to use, Microsoft says it hopes to encourage broader adoption of anti-virus protection across the consumer audience, which in turn will help increase security across the entire Windows ecosystem. Widespread uptake should certainly do that. It is now widely recognised that the botnets - very large networks of infected computers remotely controlled - are responsible for delivering most of the spam, malware and phishing traffic on the web.

Microsoft says Security Essentials "is designed to run quietly in the background alerting users only when there is an action for them to take. It also limits CPU and memory usage, resulting in less impact on the tasks consumers perform every day such as opening documents or browser windows or loading search results, even on older or less powerful PCs."

It uses real-time protection to help prevent PCs from becoming infected, and it is the first Microsoft security product to make use of the company's new Dynamic Signature Service, a technology that, according to Microsoft, helps ensure users stay protected by the most current virus definitions available without having to wait for the next scheduled download."

The product will be available in eight languages and 19 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.