By Tabrez Khan, CRN, February 2, 2010, 1100 hrs
Security vendor McAfee has announced the latest updates to its 2010 product line and said that the changing threat landscape presented opportunities for everyone in the security segment.
The upgraded McAfee 2010 version of McAfee's products will have features such as faster scans, smart timers to schedule scans at times when PC usage is low and postponement of prescheduled scans when the PC is in use for important tasks.
“McAfee scans will now be eight times faster than earlier,” said Vinoo Thomas, Technical Product Manager, McAfee India. “Our products will utilize 50 percent less memory to allow uninterrupted PC activity during scans. The space required on user’s hard drive has also been reduced with the 2010 upgrade.”
Remarking on India’s emergence as a prime target for hackers, Thomas said that the global threat landscape had changed vastly in the last few years. India had replaced China, Russia and other countries to become a fertile ground for hackers to test their botnets and Malware, he added.
“Phishing, which was rather unheard of in case of Indian companies five years ago, is now rampantly targeted at Indian banks’ websites. The recent Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode campaigns have ironically increased phishing activity with hackers trying to gain critical data by creating clones of these campaigns,” added Thomas.
According to Thomas, the current Internet penetration in India is a rather low 7 percent but as it increases the need for security products will also increase vastly. “New users on the Internet may be targeted by the age-old tricks of hackers and malicious software vendors. Thus, there is a great need and opportunity for security product vendors and channels.”
While talking about McAfee's commitment to empower channel partners in leveraging opportunities, Kartik Shahani, Regional Director, India and Saarc, McAfee said, "Security needs are getting complex and so are security products. Our aim is to empower partners to not only sell products but rather deliver solutions to customers so that they can move up the value chain and improve their profitability." |