Vista security concerns

‘Dramatically more secure’… or not?

January saw the full commercial release of

Microsoft

‘s latest operating system: the long-awaited

Vista

. Since its release arguments have continued to rumble on over whether the new OS is any more secure than others. While Bill Gates has described

Vista

as ‘dramatically more secure’ than other operating systems, thanks to its numerous new security features, security researchers have challenged the claims, pointing out several shortfalls in the same security features.

For instance, while

Sophos

researchers have revealed numerous viruses working under

Vista

, anti-spyware firm

Webroot

has shown

Windows Defender

to fail to detect a high percentage of the spyware presented to it, and

Kaspersky

researchers have picked holes in the usefulness of the User Access Control system, demonstrated the vulnerability of

Patchguard

to rootkits, and surmised that as long as hackers and virus writers continue to search for vulnerabilities, they will continue to find them.

Posted on 01 February 2007 by

Virus Bulletin