Free Security Software Install from ATT

I have thought many times that ISPs should be providing their customers with the tools to protect against viruses and spywares. Somehow I missed to include it in my wish list.

Recently I checked my AT&T DSL email and was pleasantly surprised to find that AT&T DSL service provides software installation on the PC for Norton Anti Virus, Norton Anti Spyware and personal firewall free of cost (well not really, I am already paying for the DSL service).

This is a very good step in the right direction. Now, just sending an email and asking people to install is not enough, they should be more proactive and engage people in some other ways like giving one time incentives. A one time discount on the monthly bill can motivate customers to actually install this software. Even though software installation is already free, so that is a good incentive, but we have to assume that majority of customers have no clue about security (ok, they are dumb) and they will not read the email. Many of those, even if they read it, will not actually do it. It includes yours truly.

That ATT email has been in my inbox for a long time, but I did not bother to open it as it is just another marketing email. I do not know why I opened it, it was just a brain wave that prompted me. Once I opened it, thankfully anti virus installation was the first item, so it caught my attention, I still do not know what rest of the email is about. And even after reading it, I took many days before I thought of trying to install it. And now I am glad that I tried it. Process was intuitive and easy. One thing which did not make sense is that they refuse to install Norton Anti Virus if another spyware is installed on it. I know, you are thinking it should be Norton Anti Spyware and not Anti Virus that should complain, but that is how it is. Norton Anti Spyware installed without complain, even in the presence of another spyware software, but Anti Virus will not install unless I remove the other spyware software. May be it is an evil ploy of Norton to take over the world's PCs. Who knows?

So I installed it, but one thing still worries me, what if AT&T has installed its own trojan horse to track my web activities along with the free software. For now, I am willing to live with that risk, and hope that it is not the case.