Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 24 November 2008 08:06
Opinion and Analysis
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AVG also highlighted the challenges facing Microsoft to keep pace with the growing proliferation of new and increasingly onerous online threats.
AVG points to the fact that “Microsoft often relies on its monthly "patch Tuesday" updates to refresh its current anti-virus product, leaving computer users vulnerable to botnets and other malicious attacks.”
AVG also notes that Morro “importantly... will have even less protective features than its current OneCare offering – further heightening computer users' vulnerability to fast-spreading viruses and other threats.”
Of course, no-one but Microsoft truly knows what the final Morro offering will look like tomorrow, as it were, we only know what they’ve told us today.
But AVG rightly points to statistics that highlight the escalating problem, saying that “computer infections from malware are increasing exponentially. AVG's in-house research team notes that 50,000 variants are being issued every day – further pointing up the need for real-time protection.”
AVG also takes the opportunity to promote its LinkScanner feature, previously the cause of a fake traffic scandal (although now solved), which “provides up-to-the-minute protection against the very latest threats. What's more, AVG's award-winning anti-virus products have long been recognized for providing maximum computer security and online protection with minimal resource strain.”
AVG has also had a couple of snafus of its own in the very recent past, causing some headaches for users of 5 different non-English versions of Windows XP, and then following it up with another snafu I can’t remember the full details of.
But hey, no-one’s perfect – plenty of people would happily suggest Windows ME and Windows Vista were much bigger snafus that Microsoft inflicted on millions more people than AVG’s two recent, now fixed, episodes.
And Linux people consider Microsoft to be one big snafu, although I leave that kind of anti-Microsoft zealotry to the Linux/FOSS fanatics of the world, they love it and I seriously think they’d be lost and get rather depressed without having Microsoft to battle against, although that’s entirely another story altogether for a different column, but hey, I couldn’t resist.
So, what other potshots is AVG taking at computing’s biggest target, Microsoft?
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