McAfee, Inc. Agrees to Acquire Secure Computing

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by IBK, Sep 22, 2008.

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  1. IBK

    IBK AV Expert

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  2. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    isnt that the company that has a gateway product that uses the avira engine along with another engine?
    guessing it wont be for long.
    isnt uncommon for mcafee to swallow up companies *gulp*
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2008
  3. Fajo

    Fajo Registered Member

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    Goes with the modo if you cant beat them simply buy them out. :D
     
  4. trjam

    trjam Registered Member

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    Yep, the big boys are buying and hiring and before to long the number of AV vendors will dwindle. All of that means it will be easier for malware writers to write viruses with less companies to get around.
     
  5. vijayind

    vijayind Registered Member

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    If I remember correctly, Secure Computing's Web Washer uses Avira and its own heuristic engine.Hope McAfee puts the heuristics to good use, since their product range has abysmal heuristics.

    Needless to say, Another one bites the dust....
    Atleast this move makes more sense than Symantec & PC Tools deal...
     
  6. snowbound

    snowbound Retired Moderator

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  7. Someone

    Someone Registered Member

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    I always thought McAfee's heuristics were reasonable? I was looking at the latest av-comparatives proactive test.
     
  8. Macstorm

    Macstorm Registered Member

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    Finally McAfee will learn how to 'secure computing' :D
     
  9. EASTER

    EASTER Registered Member

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    Exactly my answer to a thread elsewhere here on AV's are dead or something to that effect, and i venture a guess if this gobble up trend continues to which AV entities do shrink, watch for the rise of even more pure HIPS developers to join and add against such a growing threat.

    After all HIPS are strickly Pro-Active before-the-fact and if enough of them begin to gain wide respect and popularity anywhere near the customer base of AV's, they'll be given some serious public/business consideration instead of their current limited exposure & usage outside of specialty security forums like this.

    EASTER
     
  10. vijayind

    vijayind Registered Member

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    McAfee heuristic engine basically piggy banks on tech they got from Dr.Solomon.
    So McAfee seems to have a decent detection rate of polymorphic samples mostly. Try some modern day threats, like new Vundu samples and it will draw blank !!

    Hence in the AV-Comp. test it excelled in detecting Virus samples, but got hit bad in face of script and other malware. Hopefully Secure Computing will fill the gap here.
     
  11. Zyrtec

    Zyrtec Registered Member

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    The Enterprise version of their AV (e.g. VirusScan Enterprise 8.7i) is not as lackluster as their Home counterparts (VirusScan Plus) and has more options dealing with malware than the consumer version.

    I'm not saying it's stellar but when you compare the business version and home version of this AV maker the former is much better than the last.

    I tested a trial of their VSE 8.7i beta and the VirusScan Plus 2008 and it turned out that 8.7i is better on detection than the 2008 version.

    I wonder why they make better products for the enterprise at the home user expense.

    Carlos
     
  12. RejZoR

    RejZoR Lurker

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    Actually what it used to be Dr.Solomon it's as much as Norton in Symantec products. Just a name. tech has long back evolved or been replaced.
    And McAfee engine is quite good against poly malware and is also very adoptable through DAT's.
     
  13. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    maybe its due to the Artemis Technology which is in mcafee enterprise 8.7I beta but isnt in the comsumer versions yet?
    maybe you should try the lastest comsumer beta which contains the Artemis Technologyand see the difference then?
     
  14. vijayind

    vijayind Registered Member

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    From what I hear and know, the latest generation of McAfee heuristics have evolved from Dr.Solomon. And that is the reason, they have not been able to extend the same engine to detect other malware with same results as polymorphic viruses.

    But in all realism, I see McAfee using over-the-cloud approach over heuristics in the future. But one can always speculate and wish :D
     
  15. doktornotor

    doktornotor Registered Member

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    Yeah, maybe there's nothing like a technology where noone can opt in and noone can opt out, where noone exactly knows where it's actually used or not, and definitely there's nothing like a total failure anyway. :rolleyes:
     
  16. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    lol for once i agree with you. i dont like stuff that i cannot opt out of.
     
  17. The Hammer

    The Hammer Registered Member

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    There will be more industry consolidation in the next five years or so and we'll be looking at a very different landscape.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2008
  18. Stefan Kurtzhals

    Stefan Kurtzhals AV Expert

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    The Dr. Solomon deal was so long ago, I don't think that anything of that technology is useable against current threats. If it is still present in the current McAfee engine at all.
     
  19. vijayind

    vijayind Registered Member

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    Please I am not saying they are using Dr.Solomon. But I am saying that current McAfee heuristic engine has evolved from Dr.Solomon, due to which it is inherently ineffective against new age threats.
     
  20. RejZoR

    RejZoR Lurker

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    Yeah, only thing common to both is probably fact that they proactively detect malware. Other than that i simply agree with Stefan on this one.
    Current malware is nothing like it used to be in days of Dr.Solomon.
    Even beyond just evolving heuristics.
     
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