McAfee unafraid of Microsoft's 'part-time' security effort

by admin April 10, 2006 at 4:13 am

Antivirus firm McAfee’s president believes the company will be able to compete with Microsoft after the software giant launches its OneCare Live security products — because security is not something you can do “part-time”.

In June, Microsoft is expected to launch Windows OneCare Live, which is the company’s long-anticipated entry into the consumer antivirus space. The company plans to charge US$49.95 a year to shield up to three PCs against viruses, spyware and other cyber threats.

However, although Microsoft’s late entry into the security application market does pose a threat to McAfee’s business, the company’s president Kevin Weiss told ZDNet Australia last week that security requires dedication and specialisation.

“Security is hard — we have been doing this for 15 years. We have over 10 patents that are focussed right at security. We think we have a pretty significant lead in what we are doing. Security is not something you do part-time,” said Weiss.

Weiss gives one example of how he believes Microsoft’s thinking is fundamentally flawed when it comes to security: “If you are in an airport lounge and they have PC that lets people do their e-mail remotely, look at how many Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents get downloaded?¢‚Ǩ¬¶ Microsoft doesn’t allow you to look at those documents without downloading them to the PC. That is for me, an indication that they don’t think about security all the time,” said Weiss.

Microsoft said it is going to let its customers decide who they want to trust with their security applications.

Full article: ZDNet Australia