Saturday, November 12, 2016

Kaspersky accuses Microsoft of anticompetitive bundling of antivirus software

Billionaire Russian anti-virus developer Eugene Kaspersky has penned an angry blog post titled "That's It. I've Had Enough!" to complain about Microsoft and Windows 10. Specifically, Kaspersky argues that the way Microsoft bundled Defender with Windows 10 is anti-competitive: he says that Microsoft has created obstacles to third-party products and is acting against the interests of the developers of third-party security software.

Accordingly, Kaspersky says that he has filed complaints with competition authorities in the EU and Russia. He asks that they force Microsoft to cease the behavior he feels is anti-competitive.

Microsoft has integrated anti-malware software to ensure that every Windows system has a basic level of protection without requiring any additional third-party purchases or installations. Here's how the Microsoft setup works, and the way it has worked since Windows 8: built-in MS anti-malware software automatically disables itself if it detects a third-party product is installed and up-to-date. Microsoft chose this behavior to keep its OEM partners happy, since many of them depend on kickbacks from pre-installed third-party antivirus software.

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