Just months ago, Russian-based cyber security company, Kaspersky filed an antitrust complaint with Russia’s Federal Anti-Monopoly Services (FAS). The complaint was centered around the concern of Microsoft using their market share in the PC industry to push end-users to Microsoft’s security program, Windows Defender. A specific issue sited included Microsoft blocking third-party security vendors from alerting customers before and after their subscription had expired via pop-up messages. Another concern was the lack of time third-party antivirus (AV) companies had to make necessary product adjustments to remain compliant with Microsoft Windows updates.
Microsoft and Kaspersky Playing Nice?
Today, news broke that Kaspersky dropped their antitrust complaint. This comes after the security firm and Microsoft have spent much of the last few months working together to address the concerns. According to Forbes, Microsoft will implement changes, allowing third-party AV companies to send pre-expiration and post-expiration pop-up messages to existing customers. Microsoft will also expand the time-frame allowed for third party security vendors to make the necessary changes to remain compliant with Microsoft updates.
Thanks to Kaspersky, all third-party security vendors are winning. Had they not filed the antitrust complaint, it’s likely Microsoft would not have made these changes on their own.
