McAfee announces new slate of 2002 security products

McAfee Consumer Products, a division of Network Associates Inc., will ship a raft of updated security products for the home and small business in early October, with upgrades coming to the company's flagship VirusScan application, the company said this week.

Updated to 2002 versions will be VirusScan, McAfee Firewall, McAfee QuickClean and McAfee Internet Security, a software suite that includes antivirus tools, a firewall, privacy protection, content filtering and more. All new versions of the software will be Windows XP compatible and will ship on Oct. 7, McAfee said.

McAfee VirusScan 6.0 will offer instant, automatic virus updates and an integrated firewall, the company said. The software will include the new Hostile Activity Watch Kernel, or HAWK, a feature that notifies the user if a mass e-mail is about to be sent and if attachments with two file extensions are present, said Lisa Smith, senior product manager for antivirus at McAfee. Both mass e-mail and multiple file extensions are indicators of possible e-mail worms. The software's integrated firewall offers filtering of inbound Internet traffic and intrusion detection, McAfee said.

VirusScan Professional 6.0, a separate package, offers all the features as VirusScan but adds virus scanning for Palm OS handhelds and secure data "shredding," McAfee said. VirusScan 6.0 will retail for US$39.99 and VirusScan Professional will cost $49.99. McAfee will also release a new version of Virex, its antivirus software for the Macintosh, in December which will offer MacOS X compatibility, Smith said.

McAfee Internet Security 4.0 is the suite formerly known as Internet Guard Dog. Included in the package are antivirus and firewall software, intrusion detection, PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption, Internet cookie and ad blocking and more, McAfee said. The suite also offers a host of new Internet tools, including the ability to detect stealth programs and Web bugs (tiny programs used to track Internet usage surreptitiously) and content filtering of Web sites and instant messages, including the ability to block the disclosure of personal information through such messages, according to Tracy Hulver, director of product management for McAfee Consumer Products. McAfee Internet Security 4.0 will retail for $69.99.

McAfee Firewall 3.0 will offer updated intrusion detection, the ability to block incoming Internet traffic, color-coded alerts, instant updating and a new interface, McAfee said. The software will cost $29.99.

McAfee QuickClean 2.0, which lets users perform easy maintenance on their PCs to remove unwanted or unneeded files, as well as a data shredding for user privacy, will retail for $29.99.

This announcement comes only days after McAfee rival Symantec Corp. announced its line of 2002 antivirus and security products. Included in that announcement were new versions of Norton AntiVirus, Norton Personal Firewall and Norton Internet Security, an integrated security suite.

McAfee, in Santa Clara, California, can be contacted at +1-408-992-8100 or http://www.mcafee-at-home.com/.

ITworld.com

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