Malware Protection Center Evolves to Version 2

  Microsoft's Malware Protection Center has evolved to version 2. On July 21st, 2009, the Redmond company announced that the compete version 2 of its threat research and response online destination was live and accessible to users. It was at the end of February 2009 that the software giant introduced the Beta of the Malware Protection Center v2. At that time, only a subset of the final features were debuted into testing for the public. Five months later, the complete version of the Malware Protection Center is online, offering a range of enhancements compared to v1.

“This new portal contains several new features including stream-lined sample submission and tracking, which is made possible by creating an MMPC profile. When you log in, the information saved in your MMPC profile auto-populates the sample submission form, thereby expediting the submission process. You can then monitor the status of your submission online – if you are logged in (using your MMPC profile) while submitting a sample, we will allow you to view details for all samples you have submitted in the past. In effect we now have ‘one stop shopping’ for sample submission and tracking,” explained Monilee Atkinson, program manager at Microsoft.

Still, even at this point in time, the software giant still has one feature that is yet to deliver. Atkinson noted that v2 of the Malware Protection Center will be complete with the integration of a new security blog aggregator page. The page in question is scheduled to go live on version 2 of the website later today, July 22nd, and will permit users, security experts, etc. to access all the blog posts from various teams across Microsoft that are focused on security.

“MMPC Portal V2 includes a change log which allows you to see new and updated detections in the most recent definition versions. We have also implemented RSS feeds for encyclopedia entries, active malware lists, and the change log to allow you to stay up to date. We have stream-lined our UI to improve accessibility to content, extended existing content, and created new content. The new content includes a ‘guidance and advice’ section, improved encyclopedia content/organization, expanded glossary, a list of recent research papers, updates on news and events, highlights around awards and certifications, as well as an introduction to our team,” Atkinson added.