Re:The Importance of Outbound Filtering for Firewa (Score 1)

Microsoft's recent push into the consumer security market with its OneCare service, plus the upcoming release of its next-gen Windows Vista scheduled for the first quarter of next year promise a load of security enhancements, however it is without outbound protection enabled. this will most propably be a repeat of the situation with the Windows XP built-in firewall, where there were many functionalities missing.... The objective of a firewall is to provide comprehensive protection againsts threats, both inbound and outbound. With only inbound protection in place--even though you are protected from Internet-based attacks directed at your computer, any program, including malicious ones (viruses, spyware) can communicate data from your computer without restrictions. This is a dire situation as your personal information, business know-how or other critical data can leave your computer, bypassing the firewall's filters. This is also because antivirus, antispyware or other signature-dependent solutions cannot deter such attacks, as vendors have not yet assigned a proper fingerprint to identify the presence of a virus or spyware instance. Too often, the development process of the modern security industry is lagging the pace of malware writers