Anti-spyware on the move

Let us take a moment to marvel at the ever-quickening pace of technology, both of the beneficial kind and (sadly) of the malicious variety. Take spyware, for instance. In roughly two years, it has evolved from a personal nuisance to full-fledged enterprise threat — capable of stealing passwords, compromising corporate databases, and engaging in a host of other technically sophisticated dirty tricks.

Fortunately, the white hats have kept pace, as Contributing Editor Keith Schultz notes in this week’s Test Center evaluation of anti-spyware tools. Indeed, Schultz found all 10 packages he reviewed to be competent defenders; three of them pulled down ratings of excellent. Those results stand in sharp contrast to Schultz’s assessment from October 2004, when he looked at the nascent field of enterprise anti-spyware solutions and judged the implementations to be immature, if promising.

We also noted then that the anti-virus vendors were “late to the party.” That may have been so, but many of them — F-Secure, McAfee, and Trend Micro among them — have jumped in with both feet. And just in time, as they suddenly face an eclectic mix of competitors from all sorts of disciplines, including systems management (LANDesk) and edge security (SurfControl). The field has matured in a hurry, which is good news given how fast the bad guys keep moving.

Speaking of good news, I have some for any of you who haven’t yet submitted nominees for our annual InfoWorld 100 Awards. We are extending the deadline for submission until this Friday, Sept. 23. So if you know of a company that has enhanced its business through innovative use of IT, point your browser to our awards page. We’ll announce the winners in November.