Symantec wants to lend a hand with Vista security

[admin]

Symantec is thinking up ways to take the pain out of a security feature in Windows Vista.

The Cupertino, Calif., company has plans to create a technology that makes security decisions for Vista owners dealing with User Account Control. This feature in the operating system asks for permission to lift security barriers to the inner workings of a PC whenever software tries to access these. But it makes too many requests to be effective, according to Symantec.

"I have been running Vista for a while, and UAC bugged the heck out of me--to the point where I tuned it out and, eventually, turned it off," Rowan Trollope, vice president of consumer products at Symantec, said in an interview. "If a company could do better, it would be one of us security companies."

While Trollope's comments may seem self-serving, Natalie Lambert, an analyst with Forrester Research, said the company has a valid point.

"UAC is a great step forward for computer security, in theory. The main problem is that it still leaves the power in the user's hands. As we know, security technologies are only as strong as (their) weakest link, and in this case, that is the user," Lambert said. "Symantec's plan to enhance UAC is a much-needed complement."

The Vista feature lets people run a computer with fewer user privileges, which dictate how far they can interact with the software on it. It's designed to prevent malicious code from being able to do as much damage as it would on a machine running in administrator mode--a typical setting on Windows XP. In Vista, users now have to grant permission each time full access to a PC is required, for example, when installing a program or changing a setting.

Source: CNET

[Barty001]

I have same probs! And since a few days the vista securityCenter don't recongise my anti-virus program anymore. It worked good untill a few days ago. I have Symantec AntiVirus(TM) Corporate Edition installed on Vista Ultimate