The Hindu Business Line : Symantec says no threat from Microsoft security tool

Chennai June 7 Symantec will not face any threat from Microsoft's launch of the business security solution - codenamed Stirling - on Monday, according to Mr Mark F. Bregman, Chief Technology Officer, Symantec, a $5-billion security (anti-virus) and storage software provider.

"It is good that Microsoft is coming out with such a security solution.

"However, they are building the solution only on the platform or the operating system (Windows) and not the entire network," he told Business Line on the sidelines of a press conference.

Globally, Symantec has around 150 million consumers and most of them use Windows-based personal computers that have Symantec Norton Anti Virus solution or of other companies like McAfee.

Own security

However, now Microsoft is building its own security solutions that would be bundled with its operating systems and IT infra- structure.

Mr Bregman said Symantec offers a `comprehensive' protection covering the entire IT networks, including personal computers and servers. "Microsoft was targeting personal computers and the basic infrastructure.

However, today the threat of an attack, including virus attacks (in 2006 around 100,000 viruses were discovered), was beyond the Windows operating system. What about mobiles? Microsoft does not have a solution for that while we have," he said.

Microsoft in a release said Stirling - its `next generation Forefront business security solution' - provides a unified security management and reporting with `comprehensive and coordinated protection' across an organisation's IT infrastructure.

A year ago Microsoft launched its Forefront brand of security products for business.

During the year it launched 10 new security and access products, which help millions of users worldwide access the information they need, while protecting organisations from the latest threats on their IT systems.

Managing risks

According to Mr Bregman, Symantec help clients manage IT risks.

This include natural disasters and system failures; application response time too long (like a bank Web site being too slow to respond); internal and external threats (virus attacks) and information technology compliance failures.