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McAfee Releases 2005 Version Of McAfee VirusScan
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2004-09-15
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Enhanced Anti-Spyware Technology and Increased Protection From Mass-Mailing Worms and Blended Threats Will Build on McAfee VirusScan's High Satisfaction Rate.
McAfee today announced the release of the 2005 version of McAfee VirusScan, the company's popular anti-virus software for the home user. The new version, now available on the Company's website, http://www.mcafee.com, is equipped with a number of new features, including enhanced anti-spyware technology and faster, more efficient scanning to protect home users from increasingly prevalent mass-mailing worms and new blended threats. The new version of McAfee VirusScan is equipped with "zero-time infection" intrusion prevention technology to proactively assist in the protection of home users against viral and non-viral threats. A holistic approach to computer security, intrusion prevention operates on a proactive rather than reactive protection base and makes behavior analysis, pattern matching and heuristics an integral part of virus protection.
"Intrusion prevention has proven itself successful for McAfee in the enterprise space, and we believe that by introducing this market-leading technology to the McAfee home user base, we will have a strong strategic advantage over the competition and will meet a growing consumer demand for proactive, zero-time home PC protection," said Bill Kerrigan, senior vice president of McAfee Consumer. "Our goal for this latest release was to look at evolving trends in the security marketplace, changing consumer behavior and our customers' expectations of the McAfee VirusScan service, and to deliver a product that will move us closer to the 100 percent satisfaction mark. We believe this latest version of McAfee VirusScan will achieve that goal."
A recent customer satisfaction survey of current McAfee customers demonstrated that 97 percent of VirusScan users expressed satisfaction with the product and its feature set. The survey also uncovered a number of new consumer trends and behaviors that are evolving as online users grow more sophisticated. For example, users are now attaching, sending and saving larger files than ever before, in part due to the trend toward digital photography. In response to these behavioral changes, McAfee has significantly increased the speed and efficiency with which the product provides both inbound and outbound scanning to insure that users can send and receive secure images and attachments faster than ever before.
The new McAfee VirusScan release has also taken into consideration the growing prevalence of mass-mailing worms and blended threats, which have become increasingly common over the last 12 months. In fact, during the first half of 2004, the McAfee Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT) identified and protected against 29 medium-risk viruses, compared to 14 medium-risk viruses in all of 2003 -- a 100 percent increase in less than six months. In response to this trend, McAfee has started to incorporate several new elements from its intrusion prevention product strategy into McAfee VirusScan, offering home users a more advanced approach to home computer security, and resulting in an increased ability to detect and combat blended threats such as Mydoom, Bagle, Netsky and Sasser.
McAfee has also noted a steady increase in the amount of spyware detected on users' systems over the past year and has responded by incorporating additional anti-spyware functionality into the McAfee VirusScan service including the following:
-- Enhanced overall detection and removal of spyware
-- Extension of Potentially Unwanted Program (PUPs) -- spyware, adware, dialers, and other potentially unwanted programs -- detection to inbound and outbound email and Instant Message scanning
-- Integration with the McAfee VirusScan engine, resulting in faster PUP scanning
-- McAfee AVERT threat monitoring of spyware applications
-- Detection of Web dialers through heuristic methodologies
-- Addition of spyware detection to McAfee VirusScan's "scheduled scan"
-- Increased number of spyware applications detected
-- Automatic updates for PUPs -- spyware and adware -- detection through the current virus signature file update mechanism
McAfee VirusScan continues to offer feature-rich and up-to-the-minute protection against virus outbreaks by utilizing intrusion prevention technologies to more effectively block threats at the perimeter and dramatically assist users in protecting themselves from outbreaks. McAfee VirusScan is now delivered in an easier-to-use package that includes a faster download, SP2 compatibility, a footprint that remains less than 5 Megs, and a scanning process that requires less system resources.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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