McAfee

With security and cloud-computing both hot-button topics, Verizon Communications and McAfee are joining forces to offer customers a combination of the two.

Verizon's business unit and McAfee announced Thursday a new joint venture to sell cloud-based security products and services to large businesses and government agencies. With more companies tapping into the "cloud" to lower costs and outsource administration, McAfee and Verizon will sell a new suite of cloud-based security products, expanding on Verizon's current lineup.

Managed by Verizon, the new cloud-based services will offer an array of security products, including firewalls, intrusion prevention, anti-malware, and … Read more

McAfee, one of the world's largest Internet security providers, wants to go one step further in keeping your data safe. It now offers to store your backup data for you.

The company announced Thursday the availability of its McAfee Online Backup, an online backup service that automatically uploads data from your computer's hard drive to a remote server via the Internet.

While online backup services are nothing new and have been available for a long time from many providers, such as Carbonite, Memeo, or Cuku, the main difference with the new McAfee Online Backup service is that it'… Read more

Through no fault of her own, actress Jessica Biel is now the most hazardous celebrity on the Internet.

Fans searching online for Biel have a one-in-five chance of hitting a Web site with malware, according to McAfee's third annual report listing Hollywood's most "dangerous" online celebrities.

In general, hunting for Hollywood's in-crowd poses a much greater threat than searching for just about anyone else. For example, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama ranked No. 34 and No. 39, respectively.

Other unsafe celebrities near the top of the cybersecurity company's list include singer Beyonce … Read more

Former McAfee President Kevin Weiss, exonerated of wrongdoing in a stock option-backdating scandal, plans to ask a judge on Monday to unseal the arbitration award that cleared him of wrongdoing and ordered McAfee to pay damages for firing him without proper cause.

Three years after being unceremoniously ousted from McAfee amid the options mess that was sweeping through corporations at the time, Weiss is attempting to clear his name in public.

"If an executive is terminated, how does he get his reputation back? Is it even possible to do that?" Weiss' attorney, Scott Fletcher, asked rhetorically in a … Read more

This was originally published at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

McAfee on Thursday announced it's acquiring MX Logic, which provides on-demand e-mail, continuity, and Web services, for $140 million in cash.

The move is designed to bolster McAfee's security as a service lineup. Security software vendors have been racing to the cloud. MX Logic has 40,000 customers who cover more than 4 million end users. McAfee said that it plans to cross-sell MX Logic with its Web services such as the Total Protection Service (statement).

Separately, McAfee topped second quarter estimates and delivered a better-than-expected third quarter … Read more

Spam and botnets have hit their highest levels ever, according to McAfee's second-quarter Threats Report, released Wednesday. McAfee's Avert Labs says spam recorded in the second quarter shot up 80 percent compared with the first quarter of the year.

This follows a brief reprieve from spam following last year's shutdown of the McColo ISP. June alone saw the largest amount of spam recorded by McAfee, surpassing the previous monthly high in October by more than 20 percent. McAfee now estimates that spam accounts for 92 percent of all e-mail.

By country, the amount of worldwide spam originating … Read more

The abstract concepts of "botnet" and "Trojan" just became a lot more concrete for me.

In less than an hour on Thursday, I was able to use programs readily available on the Internet underground for as little as $300 to infect several Windows clients and take complete control of them in a test environment.

In contrast to the real world, the McAfee Malware Experience event, which was akin to a Malware 101 class (or, in my case, Malware for Dummies), served up printed step-by-step instructions for us nonhacker journalists. But McAfee researchers said the programs used--real … Read more

Updated June 5 at 3:48 p.m. Pacific Time: Users can now download the trial of McAfee Family Protection.

Correction: The 30-day trial for McAfee Family Protection is not yet available for users. I will update this post when it does become available.

On the heels of Symantec's OnlineFamily.Norton, released earlier this year, security stalwart McAfee is jumping into the family protection game with a new home-oriented protection program. Called McAfee Family Protection, the program will offer many familiar tools to parents in the hopes of fostering conversation while protecting children from harm.

McAfee Family Protection will … Read more

Security companies Symantec and McAfee will be the latest big-name developers to make products for Apple's iPhone, as the two look to cash in on the popularity of the device.

Speaking to Reuters, McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt said his company is developing security software for the iPhone, though no other details on the product were provided. DeWalt also said the company is working on a "much more comprehensive suite for the Apple family."

Symantec is throwing its hat into the iPhone ring too, but it won't be developing traditional security software. Instead, Symantec is looking at … Read more