The company maintains that it has built a version of its Authentium ESP Enterprise Platform that can bypass PatchGuard without setting off the desktop alarms produced by the security feature when the Vista kernel is compromised. ESP Enterprise, an SDK sold by Authentium to telecommunications carriers and so-called managed services providers, offers virus protection, anti-spyware, data recovery, firewall and transaction security capabilities.
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Member since:2006-04-21
Member since:2005-10-05
I think a more accurate description is that he's advocating supporting software that doesn't use undocumented tricks in the system or straight out hackery to do a job when it's not necessary to do so. The only AV companies complaining about this change in the 64-bit version of Vista (Which is already present in the x64 Edition of XP) are the ones who are not willing to rewrite their software to work on the new platform.
This kind of attitude leads to software the compromises system stability and ultimately security itself since the two are so intertwined.
Member since:2005-07-06
No, why should I trust my business to a company who relies on unstable, constantly changing, hacked up kernel level api's that could possibly cause unknown damage to my system integrity when I could rely my business on software developed using the publicly supported and maintaed API's so that when I do apply patches from Microsoft for Windows, I know that my security software will just keep on ticking withouy any problems.
Microsoft makes API's available to the public for a reason; they'll maintain it, support it; so if you write your application for them, you're pretty much assured that it'll work in the future.
This company in question, however, is basing their product on a set of API's which are undocumented, unmaintained and only for internal use; in otherwords; Microsoft has NO obligation to maintain those API's, so if they need to change something in a future update, you'll be in deep shit when you find that your hackware based application no longer works because the internal/hidden kernel api's it relies on to run, no longer exist, have been significantly change or simply their 'hack' no longer works because Microsoft has addressed the 'vulnerability'.
Like I keep saying, every time these companies do something stupid like opening their mouth and whine, it moves me closer to the idea of paying for Microsoft's security suite.
Member since:
2005-07-07
>Would you trust Authentium with that sort of attitude? sorry, if I was running a business, I sure as hell wouldn't trust my business security on products that are hackware based.
So, you're advocating a blind trust of Redmond, instead?
Better hire Theo de Raadt.