Microsoft pushes back Forefront security

Forefront Server Security for Exchange (messaging security) and Threat Management Gateway (the next version of what used to be called ISAS, Microsoft's enterprise firewall and caching software) are now expected to arrive in Q4 2009.

Management console and Forefront Security for SharePoint (portal security) are penciled in for arrival only in the first half of 2010. Forefront Client Security 2.0 (endpoint security - anti-malware and firewall - for corporate PCs) has also been delayed till the first half of next year.

In a posting on the Forefront security blog, Microsoft said the delay was needed to add improved behavior-based anti-malware protection and to improve integration with third-party security applications. The security giant expects to ship a second beta of Stirling and a release candidate prior to the final release.

Microsoft said its behavior-based anti-malware protection, which it calls Dynamic Signature Service, will help "deliver more comprehensive endpoint protection for zero day attacks" by complementing existing "advanced heuristics, dynamic translation and real time application scanning for kernel level malware with a sophisticated approach to on-demand threat mitigation".

Knock-on effects of that rather than a desire to add behavior-based detection, a term that has more to do with marketecture than technology, strike us as a more plausible reason for the delay.

Blocking malware based on what it does, rather than by recognizing its signature, is an easy enough concept to grasp but one that's frequently mired in rival marketing claims. Some vendors describe heuristic and generic detection, which many of the leading anti-virus engines have incorporated for years, as behavior-based while other make a differentiation and say the technology is the next leap forward.

Microsoft is serious about sales of security server software, and we've met several enthusiastic resellers and corporate users of ISAS over the years.

Source From: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/07/ms_forefront_postponed/