IT securityGoogle, Microsoft promise new age in cyber-security
Security-conscious consumers are in the habit of regularly updating their antivirus software; this will soon be unnecessary — this, at least, is the promise of both Microsoft and Google; the two companies’ new operating systems will include built-in, continuously updated defenses against viruses and malware
Cybersecurity is a big worry — and big business. The story we ran last week about the intensifying competition between Symantec and McAfee for larger shares of the computer security market is but one indication of this (see 13 July 2009 HSNW).
Paul Marks writes, however, that the practice of spending money on software to prevent that happening may soon be obsolete as a carefree antivirus age beckons. This, at least is what Google and Microsoft would have you believe. Last week, Google announced plans to launch a computer operating system in mid-2010 based on its Chrome web browser, directly challenging Microsoft’s hold on the market. Google Chrome OS is intended for people “who live on the web” and who are happy to run remote software located on servers in Google’s Internet data centers — or “in the cloud” as it is known — rather than have all the software downloaded onto their computer. It will be based on a version of the free, open-source Linux operating system.
More details on the Chrome OS are still unavailable, but Linus Upson, Google’s engineering director, made one major promise: “We are completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”
The idea dovetails with Microsoft’s plans for the latest version of its own operating system, which launches in October. Windows 7 will run software like Word and Excel, stored on the user’s computer in the traditional way, but for the first time will include free regularly updated antivirus software.
Which is likely to be the more secure approach? At this stage it is not clear. “Downloading updates is always going to be a step or two behind the cloud approach because it takes a while to get a fix out to a PC to install it,” says Paul Jackson of Forrester Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The cloud approach allows patches to be applied much faster.” He doubts, however, that Chrome OS will be able to do all its virus fighting remotely, since a web-based operating system will still be vulnerable to viruses that target the web browser and Linux itself.
Robert Caunt, an analyst with CCS Insight in London, points out that Google has a relatively good record on security. “Its G-mail spam filter and search engine’s phishing-detection is good. They know what needs doing.”
Marks writes that in contrast, critics liken Google’s cloud computing approach to the situation in the 1960s, when computer users “time-shared” connections to a mainframe — a slow-to-access centralization of data that Microsoft’s PC revolution was supposed to have quashed.
“Whichever proves the better, it is encouraging that the two computer giants are finally taking malware seriously, rather than leaving it to third parties,” Marks concludes.
