Adobe is urging web surfers to use Windows enterprise tools to block attacks against its popular Adobe Reader PDF file viewer. The announcement follows analysis which suggested that Microsoft EMET-enabled PCs would have been fully protected against a recent infected PDF form that was doing the rounds on the Internet.

Microsoft and Adobe are now working hand in hand to create new products using a security development life-cycle (SDL) approach, which they say will keep companies better protected.

Adobe Reader: only one of many potential back door entries

However some have been keen to point out that Adobe Reader is only one of many potential back door entries for a virus and that users should not neglect their regular desktop protection. McAfee commented in a recent press release:

"While Microsoft and Adobe's efforts are worthy of praise, in the case of Adobe especially, the defence mechanisms they have put in place have not been designed to prevent viruses from attacking a computer, only to prevent their spread once they have done so."

Due to SDL's "ability to respond to the changing cyber threat landscape and provide protection against the newest and emerging threats", it seems the perfect method to utilise within new product creation.

In fact, such is SDL's success that the two companies have decided to make it even more a priority in their developmental processes.

It isn't the first time either Microsoft or Adobe have utilised SDL, however. They have integrated it into previous developments, such as Vista and Windows 7. Adobe likewise used the method in its latest versions of Acrobat and Reader, which Brad Arkin - Adobe's senior director of security - said worked well.

He told Msdn.com: "I am very happy with the results as there has not been a successful malicious PDF exploit attack against either Adobe Reader X or Adobe Acrobat X since their release."