Do we need Security suites?

The future of security suites is pretty bright; but again they currently seem to be doing the job of the operating system. In our lives too, security is never reactive – you don't need to be a ninja in real life or for that matter hire a bouncer because you have robbers at your place every day. If you are having robbers at your place every day – you need to leave that place. What i mean through this example is that security is a basic need and it should be a part of our system in real life. This security can be at your apartment or villa; or it can even be security that your county or town or city provides you. Security that you hire is either an add-on because of some specific need or a luxury because you are too scared of the common man.

Carrying this analogy forward; user specific security on computers is not needed if the system where they reside is safe in the first place. Operating systems should just not remain as a first layer of defense – we need to kill this thought process. They should be providing the next couple of layers also and not through a software like a security suite but by making the operating system identify threats just like anti-malwares, anti-spywares work. My question to all OS makers is simple – if you don't know how your system is going to behave under a threat - you don't know your system. I work in a products' organization and if i go back and tell my client that i don't know how my product is going to behave under a particular situation – I am out of business.

I am sure it is not too much to ask for from operating systems' organizations. It just goes to suggest that people who break these systems are smarter than people who make it. Also, the OS software are so unwieldy now, that putting in this behavioral upgrade is a hassle and will hamper other basic functionalities of the OS. All of this points towards a common conclusion – the operating systems were never designed (initially) that way. I do not want to vacillate into the area of feasibility or infeasibility of redesigning operating systems or whether there is an opportunity for some more players to enter. My communication is hinging on the fact that safety, security, privacy, etc. are concepts that should be a part of our systems. It may be too early to speculate for this to happen or too whacky to say so; but this is the OS of the future.

Business wise; the first mover may stand to gain a lot; if it packs in the usual features of an OS with proactive security in-built. It's also going to be a faster system – to say the least !

Security suites: Innovation is never far behind

I am an avid follower of security suites, because i think it's an innovative concept of bringing all security features under one umbrella. But remember that there are leaders in each of those segments – like Zonealarm in Personal Firewall, Kaspersky in malware & anti-virus, Webroot in anti-spyware, CA in anti-spam, Norton as a good silent firewall, Mcafee in wireless protection, etc. It's also good to see the Dr. Solomons transformed into companies like Network Associates & Symantec and now companies like Webroot, Kaspersky, Iolo, Checkpoint giving a tough run for Mcafee & Norton. But with competition comes innovation – and that's one thing i really like about competition.

One day someone thought of bringing all these security features together and 'security suites' were born. The birth of security suites did not however kill the internal competition. I thought the anti-virus warfare was atleast over with 'you are as safe as your signature updates'; until Kaspersky came in. Mcafee, Symantec, CA ; all did a good job at packing all security features together. With features comes in performance and that was amiss on most such products. That is beyond the point though, and i can talk about it some other time. Other companies saw the opportunities here and entered the fray. I am really impressed with Zonealarm with the way they brought in the concept of personal firewall to the common man's desktop. It was fast , it was effective , the concept was fresh and promised blocking dangers rather than handling them.

Mcafee, Norton and the other guys started adding stuff to their suites until they ran out of features to add. And again remember the competition-innovation connection. Then came the era of having add-on features like PC cleanup, start up program management, etc., in the suites. The demand for these grew with the issue of privacy coming in – 3^rd party cookies, Activex controls, etc. Now the line between privacy & security is not blurred anymore – they are one and the same.

As a result, we have System maintenance companies entering the security area – like Iolo and security companies entering the System maintenance area. And i must admit that both sets of companies have done a pretty decent job so far. This however has killed some of the erstwhile products like, Trend Micro Anti-spyware, Easy Remover, etc. which may be good for the companies to focus on their narrow portfolios.

And they have taken these steps due to competition and the good thing about competition is that it invites more competition. And then innovation is not far behind.