McAfee, a division of security software firm Network Associates , today announced that WatchGuard Technologies Inc.
, a provider of Internet security solutions, will offer McAfee VirusScan ASaP’s Web-based managed virus scanning service for desktops.
“With the McAfee ASaP VirusScan service, we are able to offer our customers a transparent, automatic anti-virus solution that will not tie up their internal resources,” says Jim Cady, president and COO of WatchGuard.
MacAfee says VirusScan AsaP is completely transparent for both the channel partner and the end-user, electronic from implementation to billing. The benefits for the channel partner being integration of the services into their offerings, without the worry of additional paper work and billing.
According to Sal Viveros, marketing director for McAfee ASaP many organizations do not have the internal resources required to deploy and maintain security solutions. In addition, the increasing amount of viruses and threats on the Internet makes it harder to maintain security on a daily basis. “The McAfee ASaP services offer ‘hands-off’ 24/7 protection to the organization, enabling the IT resources to concentrate on projects, such as Web personalization, that will help to engage customers and grow revenue,” he says.
News of the partnership preceded a second announcement from McAfee and its launch of a new security software product line for the personal and home office computing markets.
McAfee says it has streamlined its security software, updated the interface and provided new product packaging to provide new features including one of the first all-in-one firewall and anti-virus packages. The products also support Windows XP to better safeguard users who upgrade to Microsoft’s latest platform and they carry the Designed for Windows XP logo so customers can identify its compatibility.
“By meeting the quality standards of the Designed for Windows Logo Program, customers will have a rich experience when using McAfee’s new software line with Windows XP,” says John Frederiksen, general manager, Windows marketing at Microsoft Corp.
New products include McAfee Internet Security, a security system including firewall, anti-virus and content-filtering protection, McAfee VirusScan with an integrated personal firewall, McAfee VirusScan Professional with advanced wireless scanning for Palm OS and synchronization scanning for other PDA platforms, McAfee Firewall with new intrusion detection capabilities, and McAfee QuickClean which offers new Internet and email cleaning features.
According to Diane Seghposs, vice president, McAfee Consumer Products Division consumers need protection in a single offering as the lines between viruses, Trojans, worms and hacking tools blur. For this, the new software includes additional privacy protection, which she says is just as important as anti-virus protection:
“Consumers can be assured they have the strongest multi-tiered protection of anti-virus, firewall, and Internet security software. In addition, McAfee Internet Security gives users more protection as it also integrates file encryption, content filtering and extensive privacy tools,” she explains.
