Lindows.com introduces antivirus system [LWN.net]

From:		"Central Command Press Release" <presslistmgr@centralcommand.com>
To:		press@centralcommand.com
Subject:		[ Central Command Press Release ] Lindows.com Introduces Built-in Antivirus Defense System for LindowsOS
Date:		Tue, 18 Feb 2003 10:24:37 -0500

*** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***


Lindows.com Introduces Built-in Antivirus Defense System for
LindowsOS

Teams with leading antivirus provider Central Command to offer
safety from viruses at an affordable price

SAN DIEGO -- February 18, 2003 -- Lindows.com, Inc. today
announced the immediate availability of an integrated antivirus
service for LindowsOS (www.lindows.com/virussafe). This new
service, called VirusSafe, uses the best-of-breed VexiraTM
Antivirus for Linux workstation by Central Command, a leading
provider of antivirus software and computer security services.
Lindows.com has addressed the #1 software request for its desktop
Linux operating system at the low price of just $29 annually.

"Computer viruses are now a way of life for PC users on the
Internet.  We certainly recognize that and wanted to provide
LindowsOS users with affordable virus protection which they can
install with a single mouse click," said Michael Robertson, chief
executive officer of Lindows.com, Inc. "With our new anti-virus
service, our users get the security they expect in a modern
operating system. It is important to us to offer best-of-breed
solutions to our customers and that is why we chose Vexira
Antivirus for our new Linux antivirus service."

Malicious code worms spread through destructive email attachments
and peer-to-peer programs waste countless hours of time and cost
billions of dollars each year. The number of Linux viruses is
currently low, but that number is sure to rise as shipments of
desktop Linux systems like LindowsOS rapidly grow. Teaming with
Central Command, Lindows.com has been able to offer a world-class
solution that is both tightly integrated with LindowsOS and
affordable.

VirusSafe, powered by Vexira from Central Command, offers
numerous features important to LindowsOS consumers, including:

* Low cost -- just $29 for one year of service
* One-click access to turn on the anti-virus protection
* Virus definitions that are updated automatically via the
  Internet during the term of service
* A virus scan scheduler
* Blocked access to infected files
* Options to repair, rename, or delete infected file
* Heuristic detection of new macro viruses


Using an advanced virus inspection technology, Vexira closely
monitors for viruses and other suspicious activity on local hard
disks, floppy disks, and Internet downloads. This keeps LindowsOS
computers safe and also ensures that users will not pass on
viruses to anyone using other operating systems. Vexira's
high-performance file analysis technology allows Vexira to
accurately identify which files may contain malicious code
(requiring further investigation) and those files that do not, a
process that greatly increases virus-scanning speed.

"We know that as more desktop Linux computers are shipped, we
have to step up our vigilance in Linux antivirus solutions," said
Keith Peer, President and CEO of Central Command, Inc. "It made
good sense for Lindows.com to add the virus protection service
using Vexira to the LindowsOS, as they are clearly embracing a
consumer Linux model that is important to the growth of Linux.
The LindowsOS is an exciting, easy to use desktop Linux solution
and offering an antivirus service clearly demonstrates
Lindows.com commitment to provide leading edge technology at an
affordable price."

Purchase Details
The VirusSafe service is available to LindowsOS users immediately
via Click-N-Run for an annual cost of $29. For more information,
see http://www.lindows.com/virussafe.

About LindowsOS
LindowsOS is a new and exciting operating system that delivers
the power, stability and cost-savings of Linux with the ease of a
windows environment. LindowsOS is easy to experience because of
its friendly graphical interface and support for popular
Microsoft Windows file types (.doc, .xls, .ppt, .jpg, .gif, .mp3,
etc.).

About Central Command
A leader in the anti-virus industry, Central Command, Inc., a
privately held company, serves home PC users and industrial,
financial, government, education and service firms with virus
protection software, services, and information. Vexira is Central
Command's leading anti-virus program, which works on multiple OS
platforms. The company services customers in over 93 countries
and is headquartered in Medina, Ohio. Visit Central Command
online at (www.centralcommand.com) or call 1-330-723-2062 for
more information.

About Lindows.com
Lindows.com is a consumer company that brings choice to computer
users. Lindows.com, Inc. was started by Michael Robertson,
founder and former CEO of MP3.com. LindowsOS is a modern,
affordable, easy-to-use operating system that allows users access
to hundreds of applications via the Click-N-RunTM Warehouse.
Visit www.lindows.com/order to purchase the most recent version
of LindowsOS. All applications in the Click-N-Run Warehouse
(www.lindows.com/warehouse) are licensed on a per-person or
family basis and can be downloaded, installed and run with just
one-mouse click. LindowsOS is also available on LindowsOS
Certified Computers being offered from Lindows.com Builder
partners (www.lindows.com/builders). See where you can pick up a
machine bundled with LindowsOS at .www.lindows.com/featured

To stay apprised of all of Lindows.com activities, including
low-cost computer announcements, visit www.lindows.com/mailing.

LindowsOS and Lindows.com are trademarks of Lindows.com, Inc.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Central
Command and Vexira are trademarks of Central Command, Inc. All
other trademarks, trade names, and products referenced herein are
property of their respective owners. Microsoft Windows operating
system is a registered trademark or service mark of the Microsoft
Corporation.

###

Media Contact:
Cheryl Schwarzman
Public Relations Director, Lindows.com, Inc.
9333 Genesee Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, CA 92121
pr@lindows.com
(858) 587-6700 ext. 241 Telephone
(858) 587-8095 Fax

Steven Sundermeier
Product Manager
Central Command, Inc.
E-mail: ssundermeier@centralcommand.com
Phone: +1 330/723-2062 x204
Fax: +1 330/722-6517



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to post comments

they found a niche

Posted Feb 18, 2003 16:43 UTC (Tue) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link] (2 responses)

Well done to LindowsOS for this idea.

I don't think it has a long future though.
Someone will write a Free version that will be superior.
Then a community style website could issue virus definitions etc.

This would be a good project for GNU/Linux distributions to band
together on.

Ciaran O'Riordan

Bloodsuckers

Posted Feb 18, 2003 16:55 UTC (Tue) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (1 responses)

coriordan writes: I don't think it has a long future though. Someone will write a Free version that will be superior. Then a community style website could issue virus definitions etc.

There are already free virus-scanners, such as Clam AntiVirus and OpenAntiVirus, as well as many hooks for incorporating them into e-mail scanning like MIMEDefang.

What you see here is the anti-virus industry becoming worried by the possibility of desktop Linux (and hence a virtual destruction of their business model.) So they try to scare Linux users into believing they need anti-virus protection.

Bloodsuckers

Posted Feb 18, 2003 18:17 UTC (Tue) by rknop (guest, #66) [Link]

I suspect that job is long done. The world at large has been scared into the need for anti-virus protection for quite a while now. Users probably are aghast at the idea of buying a computer system without virus protections. Businesses probably have a policy that every corporate desktop must be running anti-virus software. So, even though it's not the #1 threat to Linux systems, it is the #1 requested Lindows feature.

I don't know what Lindows looks like when it is installed. However, there are some very simple mistakes you can make that are far more likely to expose your Linux system to hacking then not having virus scanning software. For instance, your desktop system should have all services shut down, preferably with iptables, but at least in your inetd configuration. Then, enable only that which you know you need. (For many desktop users, this is nothing.) Then you must keep up to date with security patches. Once you've done those two things, you've made yourself so much more secure than a huge number of other systems out there that you're unlikely to fall prey to a security breech.

One day we will probably see a Linux mail program which really tries to be as friendly as the Microsoft mail programs, and which automatically executes macro code. Terrible, terrible idea, but hey, if we want to attract the desktop crowd, I guess whe have to implement the features-that-should-be-called-bugs that they want. Once that happens, the number of Linux viruses that spread will start to ride. Geek Linux users still won't be succeptible, becuase they will have turned off automatic macro execution (or, more likely, will just be using a different mail client), but many non-geek users will be succeptible. For those non-Geek people, they will be just as happy to have Virus scanners, to make them feel secure. Of course, the virus scanners won't do any good if they aren't kept up to date (just like the rest of the system), so who knows how much more they will do than help people feel secure, but people like to feel secure even if gratuitously. (If they didn't, Congress would never have passed that extremely troubling piece of legislation called the "Patriot" act.)

-Rob

root

Posted Feb 18, 2003 18:58 UTC (Tue) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link] (2 responses)

Unless things have changed, Lindows runs everything as root by default -- so such protection is a lot more necessary. Indeed, if Linux catches on as a desktop OS without basic security concepts also catching on, virus protection *will* be necessary.

root

Posted Feb 18, 2003 20:29 UTC (Tue) by jwharmanny (guest, #971) [Link]

When a 'normal' GNU/Linux user tries to wipe out his harddisk, nothing
really bad happens. In the worst case, all of /tmp and /home/username are
lost (but most people backup their own documents often enough to handle
that).
In Windows (even Windows XP), when a user tries to format c:, the only
thing that stops him is a warning message. That's what viruses exploit all
the time. They settle themselves in the Windows registry and startup
files, and they infiltrate all core system services.
The only solution in Windows is to use a virus scanner (works in most
cases) or fdisk the entire system. Been there, done that, and it wasn't
funny.
The Linux solution is to replace the user account which was infected with
a new, clean account. And because of the XML-based document formats, which
are text-based, you can verify most documents for viruses just using vi or
kate.
Lindows throws the user-account-safety away by defaulting to the root
account.

I think users should be able to use the root account by default, but only
if they know what risks they take. The targeted Lindows users don't know
those risks. This is yet another good Linux-feature which is abandoned
because of 'useability' (read: marketing reasons). What's next?

root

Posted Feb 18, 2003 20:49 UTC (Tue) by rknop (guest, #66) [Link]

Unless things have changed, Lindows runs everything as root by default...

You're kidding.

I have to admit, to this day I'd only had vaguely negative feelings about Lindows because of the name, but with no real hard evidence for them (and thus I sort of ignored them). But if this is true-- well, shoot, what a bad idea. Throw much of the advatnage of Unix out the window. I guess they did it to make things easier, but heck, that's just a bad idea from the word go.

Now I have a real concrete reason (beyond negative feelings that come from the name) to advise anybody interested in Linux to utterly eschew Lindows and instead use another distribution.

The tradeoff is an additional few minutes necessary to learn the concept of logging in as root to install system software and updates. Well worth it, if you care at all about keeping your system running.

-Rob

Great

Posted Feb 18, 2003 20:12 UTC (Tue) by Ross (guest, #4065) [Link]

Make a version of Linux where everything runs as root and there is probably not a root password... then sell software in a feebly attempt to secure it. This reminds me of spammers selling anti-spam software. What makes it worse is that the target market is unlikely to understand Unix maintenance and security issues. What we see here are Lindows profits being made at the expense of Linux's image as a secure operating system.