McAfee joins Vista battle

Newspaper ad attacks Microsoft plans.

McAfee

has joined

Symantec

on the warpath against

Microsoft

‘s plans for its forthcoming

Vista

release of

Windows

. In a full-page advertisement taken out in the

Financial Times

, the security firm accused

Microsoft

of shutting it and other security vendors out of vital parts of the new OS.

After

Symantec

recently

lobbied the EU over unfair practices

,

McAfee

has added its weight to the argument, criticising both the lack of access provided to the

Windows Security Center

and the

PatchGuard

kernel protection system, to be included in 64-bit versions and denying AV and other scanner software a method of hooking file access.

Microsoft

is said to have ‘hamstrung’ the security industry and is accused of ‘leveraging’ its kernel access to lock out other vendors, leaving users less secure. The Redmond giant has suffered a wave of security issues in past weeks, and

McAfee

pointed out exploits already in existence for the

Vista

kernel.

The issue could lead to further anti-trust issues for

Microsoft

, and possibly even further delays in the release of

Vista

.

Posted on 03 October 2006 by

Virus Bulletin