ALMOST 20 years since the first antivirus program was developed, computer viruses still strike all too frequently. So are there any new defences under development?
The bad news is that Microsoft’s much vaunted future operating system, the Next Generation Secure Computing Base or NGSCB, formerly known as Palladium, will not cure the problem. An NGSCB-enabled PC will have a dedicated microchip that authenticates all communications, ensuring for instance that no virus can gain automatic access to personal data – such as your contact lists – in a secure area of the PC.
But it will not stop all viruses. “NGSCB will certainly…
