Half a year ago, Microsoft announced that they would discontinue Windows Live One Care and instead would offer a free alternative with the code name Morro. Microsoft Security Essentials is the new name and the beta is now available. You can’t download it anymore through Microsoft, but it is still available at Softpedia.

Windows Live One Care

One Care was not really a success. Its market share was only 2%, which is a little embarrassing for a giant like Microsoft. I suppose some security software vendors heaved a sigh of relief when they realized that OneCare was no real competitor for their antivirus tools. I guess the trembling starts again now. It is one thing if small companies such as AVG or Avira offer a free anti-malware tool, but a completely different matter if the Windows maker himself comes out with a free tool. Moreover, the free version will Microsoft help to improve the detection rate of the Forefront products

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I don’t know if you saw that in my article about the GiPo@FileUtilities, some readers noted that Symantec Endpoint triggered an alarm when they installed the tool. AVG Anti-Virus, the AV software I use at the moment, had no complaints though. Thus I was uncertain if this was just a false-positive. Most anti-virus tools use heuristics to detect viruses for which there are no signatures yet available. Many viruses share specific characteristics which can be detected with rules-of-thumb.

One reader uploaded GiPo@FileUtilities to Virustotal to clarify things. I must admit I didn’t know about this useful free service, so perhaps you don’t know about it either. Virustotal uses 38 different malware scan engines to analyze the files you send them. There are many well-known brands among these such as Trend Micro, Symantec, F-Secure, or Sophos.

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Vnunet.com has an interesting article about the latest test results of Virus Bulletin. Major vendors such as Sophos, Trend Micro and Kapersky failed to protect against some of the viruses in their collection. I found it quite interesting that Microsoft, a newcomer in this field, passed their test.

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Microsoft new malware database is online now. Such a virus encyclopedia is quite useful if one of your machines gets infected by a virus and your antivirus software is not able to get it under control. You can then search for technical background information and ways to get rid of the pest. It is advisable not to rely on just one virus database, though.

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Techworld.com has an interesting article about a new test from AV Comparatives. According to this new survey Microsoft OneCare ranks 14th out of 17. Some time ago, I blogged about a report where Microsoft’s scan engine had the poorest detection rate of all tested antivirus tools.

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I wanted to try Forefront Client Security (FSC), Microsoft’s new desktop antivirus software for the enterprise, already for quite some time. Today, I thought I could just have a quick look at it even though I am still busy exploring Windows Server 2008.

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It’s my first day after vacation, and I am somewhat overwhelmed by the number of new releases relevant to my work, even though, I tried to keep myself updated through my RSS feeds. This post is more or less a to-do-list for me. If you are sys admin in a Windows shop, you’re probably in the same situation.

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AV-Comparatives, an Austria-based project, compared 12 antivirus tools and only Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare failed their test. OneCare only spotted 82.2% of 500,000 viruses. We’ve been considering moving from Sophos Antivirus to Microsoft Forefront Client Security, but this test doesn’t really inspire confidence in Microsoft’s new anti-malware tool for corporate environments since OneCare and Forefront use the same scan engine.

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Sometime ago there was a debate on 4sysops about the use of outbound filtering for personal firewalls. Some argued that once malware got started on the desktop, it is already too late to stop it with a personal firewall. I recently tested the outbound filter of Vista’s firewall. In my view, it makes sense for standard users to use it, but not, probably, for administrators.

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You might have realized in the past days that 4sysops was unreachable sometimes. There have been content spam attacks from countless different machines resulting in DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service).

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Microsoft Forefront Client Security Beta (formerly Microsoft Client Protection) can now be downloaded at Microsoft Connect. The final of Microsoft’s malware protection software for business desktops, laptops and servers is scheduled for the 2^nd quarter of 2007. I just skimmed over its product description. Forefront Client Security (FCS) could be a very interesting solution for mere Windows shops.

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James Bannan discusses an interesting issue on APC magazine about UAC of Windows Vista. The simple tool tweakvista allows you to disable UAC without prompting for confirmation. This means that any malware which manages to get itself running on you computer can do the same. Remember, UAC’s purpose is to warn you that something which could be dangerous is going on.

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I just read in the German magazine Computerwoche (print) that the number of Linux viruses doubled in 2005 (863) compared to 2004 (422). These numbers come from Konstantin Sapranov who works as a virus analyst for Kaspersky Lab. Of course, one has to be always cautious with such numbers especially coming from an anti-virus vendor. However, it is obvious that the growing popularity of Linux makes it more attractive for virus writers and other villains.

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Jeff Jones complains about Linux advocates making a baseless assertion that Linux is more secure than Windows. To prove his point he compared vulnerabilities with varying degrees of severity for Windows XP SP2 and Red Hat Desktop 3/4. The results are shocking for every Linux fan. Although, I believe that his vulnerability summary is probably correct, it does not say much about security.

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Smartline DeviceLock allows administrators to lock out unauthorized users from USB and FireWire devices, WiFi and Bluetooth adapters, CD-Rom and floppy drives, serial and parallel ports, and other plug-and-play devices. You can use Group Policy to centrally manage all devices. Check out this review at WindowsITPro for more information.