Anti-malware company Symantec has accused Microsoft of withholding key information about its upcoming Vista OS, in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the security market. Symantec claimed this week that Microsoft is refusing to hand over the APIs for Windows Defender, its anti-spyware product which will be included in Vista. Without the APIs, Symantec claims that it isn't able to ensure that its own security products are compatible with Vista. Microsoft, though, insisted on Wednesday afternoon that the APIs are now available.
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Member since:2006-03-03
I'm interrested to see how many trojan/worm/virus will appears and exploit these APIs once they are divulged by Microsoft, even under NDA with Symantec 
Perhaps Microsoft better not to make them public, if they want to ensure some kind of security...
If Symantec wants to get some sort of control over an operating system (security), why do they not write their own, or bloat a Linux distro ?
Kochise
Member since:2006-01-09
> I'm interrested to see how many trojan/worm/virus will
> appears and exploit these APIs once they are divulged
> by Microsoft, even under NDA with Symantec Perhaps
> Microsoft better not to make them public, if they want
> to ensure some kind of security...
Ooooh goody - security by obscurity - all over again.
Security by obscurity is a disproven concept - even inside MS.
API obscurity is about artificial competitive advantage by a possibly malign monopolist. There does need to be a decision of legal principle as to when disclosure should occur - after all Vista has not gone on sale yet.
Member since:
2005-12-15
Naughty Microsoft.