Microsoft to offer free virus protection

A handful of interesting stories caught my eye today all involving malware.

It was reported by The Register that a rare example of a Trojan capable of infecting Macs had been discovered masquerading as a codec to view dodgy videos - however it did require gullible users to actually believe it was genuine and install it - so few are likely to be fooled.

Meanwhile Microsoft have announced they'll be offering a free anti-malware service to the world and will be abandoning their OneCare offering. I imagine the existing anti-virus companies are less than delighted. AVG for example already offer a very good free virus scanner.

Finally at least three London hospitals are struggling to restore IT systems following a major computer virus outbreak.

I sympathise. Despite all the usual precautions, I've been on the receiving end of Windows virus action at least five times in my career. I've seen machines compromised simply by being connected to a network. It's a bit of a nightmare. Plus whenever you re-install - can you patch the dratted thing in time?

Anything that can be done to stop this sort of virus nightmare is to be welcomed.

Of course there are operating systems out there that don't have this virus problem in the first place - Unix based on the whole.