Komoku Guards the Edge
 Joe Wilcox
News Analysis. Microsoft's Komoku acquisition is the stuff of Japanese myth. Will the government-funded startup cut Microsoft? |
Today, Microsoft revealed that it acquired the security startup yesterday, March 19.
In Japanese mythology, Komoku guards one of the four cardinal directions—the West. Komoku also is a term sometimes associated with the board game Go. Guardian of the West suitably describes the company Komoku, which develops rootkit detection technology.
The company's origins may be legend for other reasons. Komoku started up with $2.5 million in funding from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the Dept. of Homeland Security and the U.S. Navy. So, how is it that Microsoft benefits from research paid for by U.S. taxpayers and in the process picks up a nice grab bag of government customers?
Something else: The research funding benefits are even bigger, considering that Microsoft owns the dominant desktop operating system, which has, according to analyst estimates, more than 90 percent market share. Why should taxpayers pay to better secure Windows? Microsoft spends around $7 billion a year on research and development; surely the company can do its own work.
Microsoft is by no means the first company to benefit from government-funded research. But Windows security has been a blight on the company for years. Surely this acquisition won't sit well with security competitors, many of which were Microsoft partners just a few years ago.
I won't belabor the topic of Windows security problems. I encourage Microsoft Watch commenters to pipe in on that one.
Komoku came from security research conducted at the University of Maryland in College Park. William Arbaugh, a U.M. professor and Komoku president, is regarded as an expert on rootkit detection. A Web page on the school's site explains Komoku's approach to ferreting out rootkits:
"The solution leverages digital signature technology to provide integrity protection for file systems with an out-of-band verification process that does not depend on the underlying operating system. The resultant system provides extremely strong integrity guarantees and configuration management-detecting modifications to approved and objects as well as detecting the existence of unapproved and thus unsigned objects. This is accomplished without ANY modifications to the host operating system. As a result, the system is equivalent to an independent auditor-detecting problems in near real time."
According to a post by Microsoft's Jimmy Kuo on the Anti-Malware Engineering Team blog: "Komoku [will] to add to Forefront and Windows Live OneCare's technological capabilities."
Komoku will guard in silence, as Microsoft plans to abolish the company name and product lines.
Komoku is located back near my old stomping grounds, in Columbia, Md. (having moved from College Park). Several notable technology companies are headquartered in the Washington suburb. Presumably Microsoft will close down operations there or move any remnants closer to government customers.
One potential benefit from the Komoku acquisition for Microsoft is access to government customers. However, since Microsoft plans to do away with Komoku products, some of these customers may get pushed aside or simply go elsewhere. Besides, surely somebody (other than me) will fuss about Microsoft benefiting from government-funded security research.
Let me ask you: Should the Feds demand back their startup funding? Such a request wouldn't be unprecedented: The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia wants investment subsidies back from Nokia, for closing a manufacturing plant there. Please share your opinion with everyone in the comments.
Create, Communicate, Collaborate with IT Professionals at Ziff Davis Enterprise IT Link.
Comments (9)
Vista SP1 horror stories start to appear
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/179871/vista-sp1-horror-stories-start-to-appear.html
The first Service Pack for Windows Vista appears to be creating more problems than it solves for a number of users.
PC Pro reader Douglas Tresias emailed us this morning, claiming the Service Pack had rendered his PC inoperable. "Started installing at 7.15am this morning on a HP with Vista Home Basic less than six months old," he wrote. "SP1 failed to install. Machine started to reset back to previous state. Computer still not usable three hours later."
Others claim that SP1 - which is meant to improve system performance - is actually having the reverse effect. "Isn't a Service Pack suppose to fix issues?" another user comments on the Windows blog. "[I] went from using 650MB of RAM idle to 1 gig... I'll be be switching back."
Posted by Marco | March 20, 2008 6:14 PM
c'mon joe, ENOUGH with the sensationalism.
"Let me ask you: Should the Feds demand back their startup funding? Such a request wouldn't be unprecedented: The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia wants investment subsidies back from Nokia, for closing a manufacturing plant there."
Dig a little PLEASE? The investment subsidies from nokia, are covered by an agreement signed originally by nokia and the government. No such pre-existing agreement is in place with Kamoku, I assume.
And how is MSFT benefitting from fed money? Its not like msft got the company for free. They PAID for it. Thats not benefitting in the sense you use the term... rather its TRADING... money for product. Anyone could have bid for Komoku.
Posted by uhura | March 20, 2008 6:40 PM
"Surely this acquisition won't sit well with security competitors, many of which were Microsoft partners just a few years ago."
Who cares? As you say, they're now competitors. There would be a problem if it did sit well with them.
"Let me ask you: Should the Feds demand back their startup funding?"
That would depend on the agreement they had with Komoku, wouldn't it Joe? Indeed, your entire gripe has nothing to do with MSFT at all - they just happened to be the successful buyer. Frankly, an overview of how/why/if that helps MSFT round out its security offerings would have been a lot more informative that whining about whether the Government has a case to get their seed money back.
Posted by Paul | March 20, 2008 7:18 PM
Well, the Feds only invested over 2 million dollars, so Microsoft can surely repay that without feeling a pinch.
Posted by Andre Da Costa | March 20, 2008 7:56 PM
Joe,
You're making a mountain out of a molehill. I assume the government received what they paid for. If not, I they can sue the University.
--rj
Posted by Roger Jennings | March 20, 2008 8:26 PM
joe, can you just slip a clear.gif onto your pages... to ease the obvious pressure you're getting to increase hits?
;-)
Posted by uhura | March 20, 2008 11:14 PM
uhura wrote: "joe, can you just slip a clear.gif onto your pages... to ease the obvious pressure you're getting to increase hits?"
No pressure, uhura.
And I detest clear gifs. Six months after blocking HTML in e-mail, the spam coming into my inbox had declined by more than 90 percent.
Joe
Posted by Joe | March 20, 2008 11:51 PM
Really? I installed a SpamAssassin relay between my Exchange box and the internet and saw a nearly 100% decrease in spam in days. And I still can see HTML mail if I want.
Onto the topic at hand, so what? Okay, DARPA "Commissions advanced research for DoD" and Microsoft settles out-of-court for hundreds of millions of dollars almost every year. It would probably cost the government and Microsoft $10 million each just to settle the matter.
I can just hear Dr. Evil now - "We hold the world for ransom for... 2.5 million dollars!"
Posted by DrEvil | March 21, 2008 12:10 AM
Windows XP vs. Vista: An Explosion of Opinion
A thousand people told us how they felt about Microsoft's plans to discontinue Windows XP. Here's a sampling of their thoughts on XP's fate, the state of Vista, Linux, OS X, and more.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143414/article.html
Quotes;
"When I posted a little survey concerning the news that Microsoft plans to discontinue most sales of Windows XP on June 30th, I expected lots of people to take it, and for the sentiment to be overwhelmingly pro-XP. They did, and it was. (More than 3500 people completed the survey, and 83 percent of them are unhappy with Microsoft's move.)
I was startled by how many people took the time to not only participate in the survey but share their thoughts at length--and by how diverse their opinions were. Some folks were raving fans of XP; others just grudgingly tolerated it. Some reported nightmares with Windows Vista; others said they were happy Vista campers. More than a few said that the prospect of an XP-less world was prompting them to consider dumping Microsoft operating systems altogether in favor of Linux or Mac OS X."
--------------------------------------------------
And you can find those free linux distros to download at distrowatch.com chips recommends, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, and Mint.
Posted by chips | March 23, 2008 3:18 PM