Comment Articles

Microsoft applies its might to fighting spam

David Coursey AnchorDesk

Published: 28 Oct 2003 15:10 GMT

For something as important as spam-filter updates, Hamlin wants to offer automatic delivery and installation. This, however, would require changes to make Windows Update deliver Office updates, or to make Office Update automatic.

My hope is that this will be resolved before the current Outlook 2003 filter starts to show its age, which I'd guesstimate to be when its miss rate exceeds 6 to 8 percent. By the time misses reach 10 percent, people will have lost their faith in Outlook 2003 spam filtering. So I'm looking forward to the announcement -- sometime in the next few months -- describing how the automatic spam-filter updates will be delivered.

Talking to Hamlin and others involved in what I consider to be an exemplary anti-spam programme, I had to ask the question: why doesn't Microsoft put as much effort into antivirus technology, something that is actually dangerous as opposed to merely annoying?

I did not get an acceptable -- or, to be honest, any -- answer to this question. That's something that really resides at the Bill-and-Steve-and-the-boys level of Microsoft decision making.

My own best guess is that Bill Gates and Peter Norton are, in fact, the same person. I keep asking whether anyone has seen them together and no one ever seems to have. But that's just a guess on my part.

Seriously, if Microsoft had to do it all over again, perhaps they would have taken viruses head-on the way they are now battling spam. That, in retrospect, would probably have been best. But that's water under the bridge and at least I'm happy to see Microsoft isn't making the same mistake twice. It rarely does.