Symantec on Apples iPhone

Today I read that Symantec are saying that locking out competitors from Apple's iPhone is the key to keeping it secure (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?news/news_story.php?id=102053).

Interestingly, this is the same firm that has publically castigated Microsoft for locking competitors out of it's new Vista operating system's kernel.

"If Microsoft wants to make Vista more secure, it should provide equal access to the platform that its own developers have to ensure that security vendors can continue to innovate on the platform, and to ensure that consumers and OEMs can continue to choose the best security solutions for the platform." (Symantec Security Response 2006/08 Weblog)

Perhaps this is due to Symantec not producing software protecting phones, and therefore not having to watch there business dissapearing before there very eyes?

We can but speculate.

What would Vista do?

Given the thoughts of the previous post, I can't resist asking the question...

If XP hiccups like the screenshot of one of my pc's having a fun moment due to DEP (Data Execution Prevention) it just restarts whatever bit of it just broke, what would Vista do?


Answers on a post card please!

Cheers

Ian

Looking forward to VISTA? I think not.

This quick blog was prompted by a mates mail and reading a superb and well researched (as much as you can believe for what you read on the web anyhow) report / document at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt

The below was my thought back to my mate.

Elo,

hmmm... not surprised. Everything I've read about vista apart from the gui puts me off... and usually I quite look forward to the new gizmos there putting in!

Hope linux has a new gui soon and I can find that PhotoShop replacement I need!!! PhotoShop was the only thing I couldn't find a comparable equilavent for (and a graphics card with decent 3d support).

Reading that it seems the delay was probably MS waiting for someone to create some hardware potentially capable of running it rather than delays in bugs. Imagine if it had been released on time a couple years ago... can't even find enough hardware to run it properly now never mind then!

ttfn

I.

An EU VISTA Hybrid?

After having just read on the BBC site that there is to be a European version of VISTA (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6049580.stm) what does this hold for our security?

Whether you agree or not with Microsoft locking down the kernel of it's next operating system, you can't help but wonder if the EU has just created a problem, and a rather large one at that.

The whole of the VISTA kernel was designed to be locked down, which raised problems for Symantec and other security firms. But does one company automatically owe another the right to a business based on competitors products? Apparently so. Strange.

Anyhow, will this new VISTA, with its open Kernel, be as secure as originally envisaged? Probably not, since it goes against the philosophy it was designed to.

Will Microsoft take as much care over the millions of PCs in Europe (after being taken to court yet again), when the bulk of its market is in the US and other countries? Probably not.

Is this going to pose a long term problem for the coming years? Probably.

Will Microsoft get blamed for making insecure software, when it's the EU legal team that's designing its software? Probably.

Is this a shoddy state of affairs when a company (whether you like them or not) can't operate to market demands and decide its own future? Definitely.

What does this hold for the rest of us? Does every application written have to be open source? While this may be some peoples favourite, whatever happened to the right to choice?

Worrying times.