Microsoft explores free option with Security Essentials

The software company's head of consumer security discusses its free anti-virus service, Internet Explorer 8 and the decline of phishing Amy Barzdukas has one of the computer industry's more thankless tasks: she's general manager for Internet Explorer and consumer security at Microsoft. But it doesn't seem to have got her down. When we met in London, she was bright, smart, and utterly charming, though some of her answers had the polish that probably comes from giving them a bit too frequently. Microsoft security issues have been a constant topic for the past decade. Microsoft has greatly improved the security of its coding since the dark days of Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6, and most criminals have now changed their approach to social engineering, phishing and other indirect attacks. "The impetus today is really about financial gain," said Barzdukas, "and as we've moved to lock areas down, they've found it easier just to trick people." Whether there's any prospect of financial gain for Microsoft is another matter. Until this summer, Barzdukas offered home users a comprehensive security, tuning and backup service – Microsoft OneCare – but it seems not enough of them were willing to pay for it. Now she's launching the security part as a free service, which she codenamed Morro after a beach resort she stayed at in Brazil. "The [Morro] engine is the same as the one that drives Forefront and that drove OneCare, but our focus was to make a very lightweight and performant security solution that also has a level of quality backed by Microsoft's researchers around the world," she said. Mainstream appeal Forefront is the security service that Microsoft sells to businesses and Forefront/OneCare/Morro have been tested by most independent sites such as av-comparatives.org and Virus Bulletin . "So far, we've been doing extremely well," said Barzdukas. No doubt the specialist antivirus companies will claim that they do a better job, but Microsoft's engine seems to be competitive, and it's aimed at the people that the specialist companies have so far failed to reach. This is particularly the case in what Microsoft calls "developing nations". But Microsoft Security Essentials – a free product launched on Tuesday – could raise more political questions than technical ones. Will the European Commission's competition department try to stop Microsoft from defending its OS, because some other companies – mainly Symantec and McAfee – make a lot of money by charging for protection? Since Symantec and McAfee are well known for complaining to the EC, I asked Barzdukas if she thought the EC would try to block it.

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Microsoft explores free option with Security Essentials