eugene kaspersky

In my most recent post: “MSE about to become major player in Antivirus solutions“, I discussed the looming changes that are taking place in the antivirus industry as Microsoft Security Essentials begins to gain recognition and prominence. Shortly after writing that post I got some feedback as well as stumbled upon a few new articles and it looks as though Eugene Kaspersky agrees the anivirus industry is undergoing some big changes right now and in the near future. The information security specialist and founder of Kaspersky Labs is anticipating several big changes that will force antivirus vendors to adapt and one of the biggest changes is that software giant Microsoft is making a push to grab a big portion of the antivirus industries market share.

More criminals on the web

The changes that are taking place in the antivirus industry are not sudden or unexpected, malware writers are getting increasingly more creative and aggressive. The internet grows and therefore the number of criminals on it grows also. Governments and law enforcement agencies are struggling to come to terms with the cyber security plans and security jobs are in high demand and expected to only increase. In years back security vendors had only to focus on viruses and early trojans, malware did not exist for criminal intent until more recently. Now that there are huge profits to be made, malware writers focus their energy more on stealing confidential information and using it to make a profit instead of focusing on notoriety as they once did. Viruses are no longer developed for the express purpose of destroying data or crashing computers as they once were. Major threats today include keyloggers, rogue products, phishing attacks, worms and adware (among many others).

Microsoft seriously focused on security solutions

Along comes Microsoft, Kaspersky acknowledges “Microsoft is going to be seriously focusing on the security solutions market; this will include developing antivirus solutions.” Enter, Microsoft Security Essentials. Kaspersky goes on to say “The software giant’s entry will undoubtedly have an impact on the best-known industry players and the current market share of antivirus companies is likely to change radically. Naturally, each company will be affected in a different way. For some, it will come as a heavy blow, while others will barely be affected and yet others will welcome Microsoft’s arrival on the market.” Companies will adapt of course and pursue different technologies as they continue to compete, as sandbox technology becomes more popular we are likely to see it breaking into mainstream as well. Everything changes and marketing still plays a huge role in who’s product is most popular. People are naturally brand loyal, so we will see what the future holds.

For myself I found it initially hard to trust a product like Microsoft Security Essentials since security has not been one of Microsoft’s strengths in the past. However this is clearly changing as we see endless positive reviews of MSE and the integrity and strength of Windows 7 are clearly strengthening Microsoft’s reputation in this area. If you’d like to read more about Eugene Kaspersky’s anticipated changes in the antivirus industry (which are happening now) you can read his article here.

Perhaps you have an opinion or observation about the current changes that the antivirus industry is undergoing, feel free to share your opinion openly here, your comments are appreciated.