VIA (Virus Information Alliance)
On Monday, May 19 Microsoft announced a new partnership with two of the biggest antivirus software vendors in the market- Network Associates (makers of McAfee VirusScan) and Trend Micro (makers of PC-Cillin). The alliance, dubbed the Virus Information Alliance (VIA) will actually consist of the research labs from each of those firms- AVERT (Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team) and TrendLabs respectively.
The goal of the alliance is to share and collaborate on new virus, worm and other malicious code threats.
On Monday, May 19 Microsoft announced a new partnership with two of the biggest antivirus software vendors in the market- Network Associates (makers of McAfee VirusScan) and Trend Micro (makers of PC-Cillin). The alliance, dubbed the Virus Information Alliance (VIA) will actually consist of the research labs from each of those firms- AVERT (Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team) and TrendLabs respectively.
The goal of the alliance is to share and collaborate on new virus, worm and other malicious code threats.
The collective research will be used to form a thorough assessment of the malicious code and the details will be shared with Microsoft customers through a web page (Microsoft Virus Protection Strategies).
Having looked at that web page as it stands now, it could use some more timely information. It has a good amount of relevant data and information in general including tools, how-to’s, links to outside resources and mailing lists for further information and documents such as security best practices users should follow. In the Virus Information section however, Slammer is the most recent threat they have any information posted on. Slammer occurred at the end of January and there have been many new threats since then that users need to be aware of. Just in the past couple weeks there have been two rapidly spreading threats- Fizzer and Palyh. Palyh even masquerades as a bulletin from support@microsoft.com which is all the more reason they should have data about this threat posted to their “Virus Protection Strategies” site.
The downside unfortunately is that the users who need this information the most will never see this site. They will never read this article. The home users with their always-on 24/7 broadband connection to the Internet don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know enough to realize they need to be diligent about security and that they need to research and find sites like these to provide them the information they need. They think if you have antivirus software installed at all they should be fine. They don’t know that they have to update the antivirus software weekly to stay current with the new threats. They don’t know that viruses are only one problem and antivirus software is only one solution. The first step in having home users become more secure is to have them realize that the responsibility for securing and maintaining the security of their computer lies solely with them.
Sadly, if users knew this stuff and knew that they needed to stay informed they would probably already be receiving email bulletins from Trend Micro or Network Associates when new threats are discovered and won’t need a resource like this one. Those who know they need this information are already getting it elsewhere and those that don’t know they need this information won’t know how to find this Technet web site. Hopefully information coming from Microsoft directly will carry more weight with the home user market and they will take action, but it remains to be seen how Microsoft plans to get the horse to the trough in the first place.
Having looked at that web page as it stands now, it could use some more timely information. It has a good amount of relevant data and information in general including tools, how-to’s, links to outside resources and mailing lists for further information and documents such as security best practices users should follow. In the Virus Information section however, Slammer is the most recent threat they have any information posted on. Slammer occurred at the end of January and there have been many new threats since then that users need to be aware of. Just in the past couple weeks there have been two rapidly spreading threats- Fizzer and Palyh. Palyh even masquerades as a bulletin from support@microsoft.com which is all the more reason they should have data about this threat posted to their “Virus Protection Strategies” site.
The downside unfortunately is that the users who need this information the most will never see this site. They will never read this article. The home users with their always-on 24/7 broadband connection to the Internet don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know enough to realize they need to be diligent about security and that they need to research and find sites like these to provide them the information they need. They think if you have antivirus software installed at all they should be fine. They don’t know that they have to update the antivirus software weekly to stay current with the new threats. They don’t know that viruses are only one problem and antivirus software is only one solution. The first step in having home users become more secure is to have them realize that the responsibility for securing and maintaining the security of their computer lies solely with them.
Sadly, if users knew this stuff and knew that they needed to stay informed they would probably already be receiving email bulletins from Trend Micro or Network Associates when new threats are discovered and won’t need a resource like this one. Those who know they need this information are already getting it elsewhere and those that don’t know they need this information won’t know how to find this Technet web site. Hopefully information coming from Microsoft directly will carry more weight with the home user market and they will take action, but it remains to be seen how Microsoft plans to get the horse to the trough in the first place.
