PC Management, Antivirus Service Planned

Nearly two years after acquiring antivirus technology and personnel from Romanian company GeCAD, Microsoft has announced plans to enter the antivirus business through a PC management subscription service called Windows OneCare.

Full Security Suite

Available for public beta testing by the end of 2005, OneCare will consist of client software and associated services that must be paid for on a subscription basis. It will offer the following features:

Antivirus. Using technology derived from GeCAD, OneCare will offer active protection (e.g., scans of incoming e-mail attachments) and regularly scheduled scans of the entire PC. The OneCare client will automatically download updated antivirus signatures, which will be maintained and provided by Microsoft.

Firewall. OneCare will install a managed two-way (both inbound and outbound) firewall with ongoing policy updates—for instance, if a new attack targets a specific port, the remote service will automatically close that firewall port. The current Windows Firewall blocks only unwanted inbound traffic.