Major antivirus vendors responded with guarded optimism Tuesday to Microsoft's announcement that it will buy antivirus technology from Romania's GeCAD Software and offer its own antivirus products.
The five biggest antivirus software vendors, Symantec, Network Associates, Trend Micro, Computer Associates International and Sophos, see Microsoft's move as an acknowledgement that fighting viruses is a key part of cybersecurity.
However, the vendors also stressed that using antivirus technology alone is not enough to be safe online. If Microsoft were to become a major player in the basic antivirus space, the vendors would be in the game of selling crucial additional software and services such as intrusion detection, firewall and security management applications, they suggested.
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