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[Ed. note: This is the 40,000th story submission to SoylentNews.org (Thanks everyone!) --martyb]
Microsoft Defender for Linux is coming. This is what you need to know:
Microsoft's security tools extend beyond the company's own platforms. While the ambition for Defender for Linux is broad, the first preview is aimed just at servers and does less than on Windows.
[...] When Defender came to macOS as well as Windows, Microsoft announced that the name of the software was changing, from Windows Defender to Microsoft Defender. Hidden in the presentation was a hint about the future: a Linux laptop with a penguin sticker on. Now Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux in is in public preview for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7+, CentOS Linux 7+, Ubuntu 16 LTS or higher, SLES 12+, Debian 9+, and Oracle Enterprise Linux 7. But what does it actually protect those OSes from?
Microsoft already has Linux malware detection in the Defender agents on Windows and Mac, because files get moved from one device to another and you want to catch malware wherever it is -- ideally before it gets onto a vulnerable system. If you're using WSL, Defender already protects you against threats like infected npm packages that try to install cryptominers.
[...] For smartphones, Microsoft seems likely to concentrate on phishing, and not just in email but potentially in messaging apps too.
[...] "But then let's move past endpoints -- let's talk about your whole estate, all of your users and all of your data and all of your communication tools inside of one threat protection environment."
Rest assured that this is guaranteed to have the same quality, security and stability that you have come to expect from the Microsoft brand name. Count on it!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by martyb on Friday March 27 2020, @03:16PM (6 children)
I highly recommend reading Joel Spolsky's Strategy Letter V [joelonsoftware.com] where I was first introduced to the concept of "commoditize your complement.
If Microsoft can wedge use of Defender into a large number of systems, then they can analyze the system's hardware and software (under the guise of providing custom or optimal solutions) and via telemetry gain an unprecedented view into the market and its customers. In this case, their commodity is your computer. "Microsoft Defender" is their complement to it.
Historical example: Though Joel's article was written in 2002 (and the examples given are obviously now dated) the foundational principal still holds. Microsoft made a FORTUNE by providing an operating system (DOS) that made early personal computers useful. Without an operating system, you basically just had a pile of electronics. Each vendor was struggling to provide an environment on which applications could run. (Think Apple, Atari, Commodore, Texas Instruments) People writing applications naturally gravitated to those platforms where they perceived there was greatest opportunity for sales. In a short period of time after the introduction of the IBM PC, that became MS/DOS (or IBM's version: PC/DOS).
The brilliance of this becomes clear when thinking of the design of any given computer. The hardware vendors similarly wanted to create a system which could be sold. They needed an operating system for people to run their applications on. As long as they used certain commodity parts and a common architecture, they could get DOS to run on their box.
The Catch-22 [wikipedia.org] was that the hardware vendors were competing against each other in the same market. If, from the user's perspective, as long as they ran DOS, they then had the luxury of selecting the most price-competitive hardware vendor. Thus, the prices of PCs underwent tremendous pricing pressure to undercut their competitors so as to get a piece of the market.
The PC hardware became a commodity [wikipedia.org]:
So PC prices went down, but Microsoft was able to maintain its near-monopoly on DOS as the platform on which applications ran, and thus made themselves effectively indispensable for the vast majority of users. Sure, there was DR-DOS and other attempts at alternative OSs, but the 800-pound gorilla was Microsoft. With nearly every PC sold, no matter how low the price, somebody also purchased a copy of DOS (and later Microsoft Windows.) Though Microsoft offered volume discounts to manufacturers, they still earned money no matter who made the computer.Microsoft commodized their complement (PC hardware), making it ubiquitous, and made a sale on nearly every single one.
Defender, today: If Microsoft can get a toe-hold in the Linux market, then they can gain telemetry on an even larger segment of the computing universe. (Witness their efforts with Windows Subsystem on Linux (WSL)). They see more and more "apps" being moved to a browser, or as an app on a smart phone. They can see that Windows no longer holds the same dominant position as it once had: underpinning the majority of user's computing universe. They need *something* to remain relevant. Hence the move to the "cloud" for their office products and mail. If they can get telemetry into every system, all the better to design an d market products with.
Don't get me wrong, I have greatly appreciated and benefited from that homogeneous computing environment. But I trust Microsoft only to work in their best interests (making money), not mine. They squandered a lot of good will with their Windows 10 rollout. I will let others ride the bleeding edge and then come to a decision. But, for now, I have just my little local laptops and can afford to wait.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by canopic jug on Friday March 27 2020, @04:49PM (1 child)
But I trust Microsoft only to work in their best interests (making money), not mine.
M$ is about control, not money. They've shown time and time again that they're willing to lose money in a market indefinitelty to ensure that no one else makes money there either. Whoever controls the computers, controls the flow of information and communication. Whoever controls that controls society. That is the wave that M$ and Facebook have been riding. Yes, M$ has been acting illegally and unethically for decades with no change. No, they are not doing it entirely without help. Think about all the groups yammering about wanting backdoors in all software. As long as M$ is dominant on the desktop, they have their back doors -- unless the GNU/Linux movement can be reined in and made to carry back doors, too, regardless of how much a commodity the operating system becomes.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday March 27 2020, @07:02PM
This trick is documented in the book: Big Blue: IBM's Use and Abuse of Power.
The idea is that once competitors are driven out of a particular market, you then have a monopoly on that market and can extremely profitably charge whatever you want. Customers have no choice but to pay or do without. Just make sure doing without is more expensive than paying and you're a winner.
If a cheap competitor eying your rich profits decides to undercut you on price, then you go back to losing money in this market segment until you drive the competitor out of business. You can of course finance these losses because you are a monopolist in other market segments where the buyer's head is in your noose and they pay whatever you say.
That book about IBM was like a playbook of exactly how Microsoft behaved.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 27 2020, @07:14PM (3 children)
"They squandered a lot of good will with their Windows 10 rollout. I will let others ride the bleeding edge and then come to a decision."
disgustingly sycophantic. also, you can shove your MS link-filled stories up your Microshaft receptacle.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by martyb on Saturday March 28 2020, @04:11PM (2 children)
1.) I see nothing in what I wrote that suggested I was enamored of Microsoft and what they had done. I simply, to the best of my to recall at that time, used them as a well-known company from which I could provide examples of actions I saw them use. Note that the whole concept of the comment is, basically, "Do not let the surface appearance of their actions blind you to what their ultimate goal may be." aka caveat emptor [wikipedia.org]. See, also, the well-known adage If you re not paying for it; you are the product [forbes.com]. I do not recall seeing any mention of a price for Windows Defender, which therefore suggests that I would be the product. I use noscript and have many custom entries in my HOSTS file to block a multitude of Google, Facebook, Microsoft (and many other) domains and sub-domains.
2.) I saw no need to use vulgarities. The value of an argument lies not how much one can thump their chest, repeat themselves ad nauseum, or browbeat the other by force of words or actions...
3.) Stooping to vulgarities and suggestions of violence against my person reminds me of a saying. There are several variations of it so I'll simply quote a more-commonly known variant and provide a link to where one can read the others:
4.) Note: "squandered a lot of good will with their Windows 10 rollout" makes no statement as to how much good will I thought they had to begin with. (Hint: very little.) Only that their actions served to drop them, in my eyes, even further from where they stood. I have been around long enough to remember the deal they made with Mosaic (which promised a percentage of revenue for its sale and then gave it away for free), Steve Ballmer's [wikipedia.org]Linux is a cancer [theregister.co.uk], the Halloween Documents [wikipedia.org], and their antitrust case [wikipedia.org] among many other "underhanded" (to put it politely) tactics they employed. I use them out of necessity (e.g. tax software that only runs on windows) but am taking steps to move as much as possible to Linux.
5.) Insomuch as I was NOT advocating for Microsoft, I also hoped to encourage discussion. I provided a source link, and a short essay on how I thought how I thought it applied.
6.) Perhaps I was not clear in what I wrote? Here is a shorter statement that I hope better captures the essence of my point:
7.) If there are errors in my reasoning, as I had stated them, please show me the error in my thinking so I can come to a better understanding.
I have decades of experience reviewing specifications and testing software; be certain that I will be looking at any further developments with a most skeptical attitude — I encourage others to do the same. I realize I live in a world where Facebook, Instagram, and many others exist. I have avoided them so far. My only social media activity in the past two decades was on Slashdot (up until the Slashcott) and then here on SoylentNews. Do I miss out on some things? Yes. But acquiescing to be a product for the privacy-invading machinations of multi-national corporations who "give" me things is, for me, too high a price.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2020, @06:46PM (1 child)
i didn't mean it all that viciously, rather somewhat tongue in cheek, but i still find the original statement to be a sycophantic whitewashing. Regarding your tax software statement. Only cowards, idiots, whores or a combination thereof, fund the IRS and this is the same type of thinking that i find repugnant.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday March 29 2020, @12:59AM
You are certainly free to do as you will in that realm. Far better folk than I have stood up for their beliefs [wikipedia.org], willing to face whatever consequences it may bring them.
For me, having had the good fortune to travel a bit in this world, I see differently many of the things that I previously took for granted. Yes, things have "slipped" over the years, but still I appreciate the mostly civil society that my taxes afford me, the roads, schooling of the young, care for the ill or elderly (barring an untimely death, that will be every one of us someday) and for defense and a whole lot more that escapes me at the moment.
I, for my part, am grateful for the things my taxes provide me, and so I choose to pay them.
I wish you well in your choice of civil disobedience and the consequences it will bring.
Wit is intellect, dancing.