News.com brings us two stories about Symantec and Microsoft. The first declares that “Symantec won’t ‘whine’ about Microsoft” and includes statements from Symantec CEO John Thompson like:

We’re not looking to go whining to the EU or the DOJ for anything

Essentially the message is, “we’re not scared of Microsoft entering the security market.” Just making the statement means they are, but that’s another point. But what’s even funnier is that in another story on News.com today, they go on to whine about a new Microsoft technology to protect the kernel in 64 bit systems called patch guard:

“patch guard is hurting security vendors more than it is hurting malware writers,” Bruce McCorkendale, a chief engineer at Symantec

The story goes on to say:

Indeed, Symantec is playing the anticompetitive card for the first time. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company had said it would beat Microsoft by using its security wits as long as the competition is fair. Now the fairness seems to be gone, McCorkendale said.

So, in summary Symantec will not whine to the DoJ or EU about Microsoft, just to the press. I for one am ready for Symantec to stop trying to grab headlines about technology that hasn’t hit the street yet and start fixing the problems we have today.

Windows defense handcuffs good guys [news.com]

Symantec won’t ‘whine’ about Microsoft [news.com]

SecurityWonk was featured on Martin McKeay’s Network Security Podcast. Listen to it here.