Will consumers and businesses trust the software giant to protect its own products?
Consensus is building among industry watchers that Microsoft will have anti-spyware and antivirus products on the market for businesses and consumers by year-end.
Many expect Bill Gates to detail such a product rollout during his keynote address at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco in three weeks. Microsoft declined to discuss that prospect this week.
However, with Microsoft's pending security splash regarded as a fait accompli, antivirus and anti-spyware vendors are sizing up their chances of withstanding the Redmond giant. Business customers, stocked up on antivirus but now eager to buy spyware protection, wonder if a Microsoft entry would drive down costs, or if Microsoft--whose software seems to always require patching--really can be counted on as the first responder in worm and virus outbreaks.
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