Symantec: Microsoft security lacks innovation

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Tom Espiner ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 13 Jun 2007 10:42 BST

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Symantec has severely criticised Microsoft's security efforts while launching Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0, previously code-named "Hamlet".

John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec, told ZDNet.co.uk that Microsoft lacked innovation in devising security products. "Innovation that comes from Microsoft has slowed. Microsoft imitates what others are already doing in the industry," said Thompson.

Symantec made these comments on Wednesday, with the launch of Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0, which aims to "enforce compliance all the way down to the individual endpoint". The product will come with presets for network-access control, as well as antivirus, firewall and intrusion prevention, while also employing behavioural analysis to help mitigate zero-day threats, the company said.

Endpoint Protection 11.0 is designed to integrate with Altiris security management, with the aim of giving a single security management console to enforce security policy in a heterogeneous systems environment. Symantec completed the acquisition of Altiris on 9 April.

Microsoft last week announced a project, code-named "Stirling", rumoured to be delivered in 2009, that will similarly allow IT managers to make sure individual devices and users within a heterogeneous network are following security policy. Currently, Microsoft Forefront and Microsoft System Center enforce policy across Microsoft environments only.

"Stirling will provide customers with one security product and one management console to protect and manage security across the entire infrastructure," Microsoft's Margaret Dawson, group product manager for security and access product marketing, said in a statement. "With Stirling, Microsoft becomes the first vendor to develop a single security product that integrates comprehensive protection technologies across client, server and network edge with unified security management, configuration and reporting."

Greg Butterfield, the group president of Symantec's Altiris division, said that Microsoft is "late to the dance".

"Stirling is designed to converge security and operations management by the end of 2009. All Altiris technology runs on common architectures — we're doing that today," Butterfield told ZDNet.co.uk. "Microsoft is validating what Symantec is already doing, [but] Microsoft is late to the dance," Butterfield added.

John Thompson also told ZDNet.co.uk that Microsoft was behind the curve, not only with Stirling, but also with Forefront, Microsoft's enterprise security product. "Microsoft innovation has slowed. Stirling is an example of that, and Forefront is an example of that," Thompson said.

Forefront was criticised by the Symantec chief executive for not having a track record of detecting new threats. "If Microsoft was breaking the mould in innovative thinking, it would have made advances in detecting new threats. Microsoft got VB100 certification for the first time last week; we pride ourselves on getting it 31 consecutive times. We applaud what Microsoft is trying to do in security, but we don't think the public should be duped by their marketing," said Thompson.

To get VB100 certification, antivirus products must detect 100 percent of  in-the-wild exploits on the Virus Bulletin database.

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