Microsoft is preaching all the security benefits of Windows
Vista, but the CEO of Symantec isn’t at all convinced by the hype. CNET News asked John Thompson
if he’s installed Vista, to which he replied, “No, I have not. I see no need for
it for what I do online today,” adding that Symantec has not yet made a
commitment to migrate to Vista.
With all the increased security features in Windows Vista,
some may be wondering why the chief of a software company isn’t interested in
running what is advertised as the most secure consumer OS on the market today.
“Consumers should not be confused. Vista is not a security
solution,” Thompson said. “Vista is an operating system, and Vista provides
some very important advances from Microsoft's perspective and for the
industry's point of view on building a more stable, more reliable, more secure
operating platform, but people still need the efficacy that comes with the
products that Symantec and others in the industry build, and so we should not
be confused by the marketing rhetoric with what Vista is.”
The interviewer then presents the argument that some of
Symantec’s core products—virus scanners and firewall—are outdated defense
technologies, which Thompson answers, “It would be naive to say they're
outdated. Locks were invented for doors in the homes that we live in many, many
years ago. They're no longer the last line of defense, they are the first line
of defense, and people still buy more advanced locks, hence more antivirus,
more firewalls.”
“We'll have to be smarter about delivering new capabilities
and new functions there for proactive defense as opposed to reactive defense,
but you'll also have to layer other kinds of technologies on to deal with new
threats around fraud and identity management and all of those,” Thompson said.