PC security 'made easy'

2005-05-13 12:37

New York - Microsoft said it plans to offer consumers a comprehensive "computer health" service later this year using the software giant's own security software, in a bold step to protect its customers from cyberattacks.

The service, to be called Windows OneCare, is designed to provide average home users with an easy way to maintain up-to-date anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall defences, while giving them tools for data back-up and recovery and for general PC maintenance.

Microsoft is particularly focused on using the service to reach the 70% of Windows users it says have inadequate security or no protection at all.

OneCare, which includes a simple interface that shows users a green bar when their PC health "status is good", will be offered for an annual subscription fee that hasn't yet been determined and will include unlimited customer support, including by phone and instant message.

It will only be available for PCs running Windows XP with service pack 2, an addition to the operating system that included many security enhancements.

"We really wanted to become the IT administrator for the consumer that really doesn't want to worry about these things and just wants to be protected," said Ryan Hamlin, general manager of Microsoft's Technology Care and Safety Group. "They just want their PC to work, and that's the design principle."

'Building its own security products'

Gartner Inc analyst Van Baker called the service the most comprehensive for consumers in the marketplace today and a boon to the legions of home users who are baffled by the complex array of tools now offered to them to stop viruses, spyware and hacker attacks and to safeguard their growing libraries of songs, photos and financial records.

"They don't have to understand the parts and pieces anymore," Baker said. "Microsoft just makes this invisible to the consumer."

Microsoft said it will distribute Windows OneCare to its employees this week as part of an ongoing testing and development process that has been underway for three years.

It plans to extend its tests to a select group of customers this summer and then to invite the broader public to participate in beta tests by the end of the year.

The Redmond company's products have been the top target of malicious attackers, and it has for years been under fire for security flaws in its software.

The new service is part of a broader effort by Microsoft to respond to these challenges, which has also included initiatives to improve the security of the software it creates, to encourage customers to use security software and to build its own security products.

In fact, the anti-virus and anti-spyware technology behind OneCare comes from a number of small security-company acquisitions Microsoft made over the last two years .

- Dow Jones