McAfee extends VirusScan Enterprise product line

(18/07/2008)

McAfee, Inc. is extending its VirusScan(R) Enterprise product line to protect mission-critical enterprise applications. McAfee continuously researches new potential areas for attacks and will be the first to protect these new vectors. McAfee's VirusScan family will include three new products: McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for Offline Virtual Images, McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for use with the SAP NetWeaver(R) platform, and McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for Storage.

"We've seen an evolution from mass-mailing viruses to more targeted attacks and threats targeting OS vulnerabilities moving to attacks against applications," said Rees Johnson, vice president of product management at McAfee. "McAfee is pioneering new technologies that help ensure customer's mission-critical enterprise applications sitting in virtual environments, SAP solution-based environments and storage systems are protected. We see growth in attacks targeting systems that contain valuable data, and we will strive to provide the strongest possible protection for these systems."

Security for Virtual Environments

Virtualisation is being widely deployed in enterprise environments. Enhanced security is as important in a virtual environment as it is in a physical one. McAfee will be the first to introduce a purpose-built security solution for virtual environments. Industry research indicates that there are as many as five offline virtual images for every one online image. McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for Offline Virtual Images is specifically designed to secure offline virtual images that could become unpatched and out-of-date while they are inactive. The new product automatically updates and patches the offline virtual images periodically so they no longer pose a security risk to the virtual environment when they are activated.

"Customers look to VMware virtualisation to help them deploy IT environments that are scalable, cost-effective, energy-efficient and secure," said Brian Byun, vice president of global partners and solutions at VMware. "We look forward to McAfee's new solution that complements the robust security inherent in the VMware platform, and provides customers consistent protection for mission-critical applications running in VMware virtual machines."

"Virtualisation-enabled data center consolidation delivers amazing cost-savings but requires careful review of existing security solutions as servers are virtualised," said Peter Christy, principal analyst at Internet Research Group. "McAfee is a market leader in terms of understanding these changing requirements and adapting their product offerings to provide effective security solutions in a virtualised environment."

Security for use with SAP Solutions

McAfee will deliver an enterprise-class security solution that is available for use with SAP solutions. Many mission-critical functions within an organisation, such as human resources, rely on SAP applications to gather and store external information. For example, candidate resumes are often submitted and entered via a company Web site directly into the SAP database. These resumes could be malicious and potentially compromise the SAP solution-based environment along with the sensitive mission-critical data. McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for use with SAP NetWeaver helps ensure business continuity by preventing malicious uploads to the SAP application.

Security for the Storage Market

McAfee VirusScan Enterprise for Storage will provide proactive threat protection for viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, botnets and rootkits. Infected files are scanned and cleaned before they ever reach the storage device. Real-time scanning for all types of files avoids propagation of infections to other parts of the environment.

"NetApp is pleased to see McAfee's ongoing commitment to securing storage environments," said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions Marketing at NetApp. "With this new product release, our joint customers can now have the peace of mind that comes with NetApp file services solutions secured by McAfee, a trusted partner in enterprise security."

Related topics:  Virus, Worm, Email security, spyware and malware 

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