McAfee Releases New Security Suites
After a month in beta testing, McAfee is releasing to the world its next-generation security suites based on its new "Falcon" platform, which combines the company's antivirus, anti-spyware, and "threat watch" technologies.
Falcon includes SystemGuard to look for certain behaviors that may indicate virus, spyware or hacker activity, and alert the consumer before the issue does damage. Additionally, X-Ray detects and kills rootkits, while McAfee Site Advisor identifies and notify users of potentially dangerous Web sites.
Like Windows Live OneCare from Microsoft, McAfee has designed a central SecurityCenter for managing the security on a PC. Customers will also be able to monitor the security status of other computers on the network. Falcon will assist in setting up secure networks as well, simplifying a confusing task for many first-time wireless network users.
"Consumers have grown increasingly concerned about protecting their personally identifiable information as they search, browse and transact online. With our new suites, McAfee arms consumers with improved and new technologies protecting them from traditional threats," remarked Marc Solomon, Director of Product Management at McAfee.
McAfee has released five new products in its latest wave of offerings, four of which are priced as annual subscriptions. McAfee Total Protection includes the complete range of capabilities for $79.99 USD. It adds Web filtering, additional security for online transitions, local backups and desktop cleanup tools.
McAfee Internet Security Suite features all the protections included in McAfee Total Protection with the exception of those for wireless home networks for $69.99 USD annually. McAfee PC Protection Plus, which does not include the network monitoring and threat analysis tools that come with Total Protection, is priced at $49.99 USD annually.
At the bottom of the new subscription lineup is McAfee VirusScan Plus, which includes only the core protection features from Falcon for $39.99 USD annually. It monitors for spyware, viruses and other malicious software, but does not provide the backup or restore functionality found in PC Protection Plus.
Lastly, McAfee is offering a firewall-only product dubbed Wireless Protection. It secures a wireless network with advanced encryption and rotating keys, along with monitoring PCs on a home network to ensure they are secure as well. The one-time download is priced at $29.99 USD.