Internet and computer security giant McAfee has outlined details of a Security-as-a-Service strategy to deliver security to businesses large or small as a service in the cloud.

McAfee’s plan to harness the cloud in such a way that means that McAfee can provide an affective and functional portfolio of Security-as-a-Service products to companies and enterprises large or small. These are more cost efficient as they are a single vendor solution to security concerns, which is particularly attractive in this time of economic downturn.

The development of this type of security service has been done in line with growing customer demand. McAfee are reacting to the evidence that shows that IT departments are losing numbers and being stretched to their limits; on top of this Gartner has claimed that even though security risks are on the increase, it looks as though worldwide IT spending will decline at the end of the year 2009.

A benefit of McAfee’s development of security products as a service in the cloud, is that the delivery option of one of the most important aspects of computer usage is flexible. Marc Olesen, SVP and General Manager of McAfee Software-as-a-Service said: “Our customers have told us they want flexibility in their delivery options. It is clear that IT resources need to focus on initiatives that are business critical, while consolidating vendors.”

McAfee’s Security-as-a-Service products works by using combined global threat intelligence from Artemis, TrustedSource and SiteAdvisor, and accumulates millions of data to compile real-time profiles of any suspicious activity. Deviations of the behavior can also be looked out for, ensuring a safeguard against rapidly developing threats. The products deliver web and e-mail protection, including malware, viruses and phishing attacks. All this is done through McAfee’s harnessing of the cloud to provide a unique cloud based management console.

The McAfee Security-as-a-Service technology offers a wide variety in its portfolio, including; McAfee Total Protection Service; McAfee Total Protection Service Extended; McAfee Web Protection Service; and McAfee Vulnerability Assessment.

The plans to harness the cloud in line with developing the Security-as-a-Service provision is there to meet market and customer demands as the ever present need for internet security increases.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The computer security giant McAfee has identified which Internet searches are most dangerous to computer safety and which are the safest.

McAfee’s report, entitled ‘The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms’ claimed that dangerous Internet searches include searching for things such as free music or screensavers. These search terms are used by cybercriminals to ensnare web users and lead them to their own websites.

Once a web surfer has visited this website, they are vulnerable to downloads that infect your computer, such as spyware which can help reveal private bank details to hackers and other cybercriminals.

McAfee’s report also identifies that these dangerous search terms are changing with regard to the new global economic environment. With higher numbers of people being made redundant due to the economic slump affecting so many, cybercriminals are now using search results to target people looking to save money or find a job working at home.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Product Development & Avert Labs said: “Cybercriminals are smart. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, hackers will create related Web sites laden with adware and malware whenever a particular topic increases in popularity. Unsuspecting consumers are then tricked into downloading malicious software that leads them to blindly hand over their personal assets to cybercriminals.”

The riskiest set of search words, according to McAfee’s report, include keywords to the variation of ‘screensavers’. The research concluded that nearly six out of the top 10 search results for the keyword ‘screensavers’ contained some form of malware.

The riskiest search of the 2,600 most popular keywords that McAfee researched was ‘lyrics’, with the risk factor rising to one in two.

The research concluded, however, that the word Viagra was one of the least risky of keywords. The keywords with the safest risk profile included search words related to health and the current economic climate.

McAfee’s report also indicated global variations on these risks. Many of these countries had keyword categories that ended up exposing web surfers to the higher risk sites. 12 countries were exposed to an overall higher risk than McAfee’s average, including Mexico and India. McAfee’s report therefore pointed to cybercriminals targeting those outside of the U.S.

McAfee gave caution to home workers and to those looking to save money: if a result contains the word ‘free’ it has a 21.3% chance of infecting a computer with spyware, spam, adware and other malicious cyber threats. The search ‘work from home’ is four times riskier than the average risk given for all popular terms.

To protect against these vulnerabilities, McAfee SiteAdvisor Technology has been designed. This rates every trafficked site on the Internet to conduct automated tests. Web sites are ranked using coloured ratings, so that users are knowledgeable as to what they are clicking on. McAfee have also recently announced the Cybercrime Response Unit to help arm users against the threat.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

McAfee, one of the world’s largest and most well-used providers of internet and computer security, has released a study demonstrating that it is the level of internet security which has the largest impact upon a consumer’s online shopping habits.

McAfee’s study, conducted by Harris Interactive, does not point to the dire economic environment of today as the main source of concern whilst shopping online.

McAfee Tim Dowling, vice president of McAfee’s Web Security Group, says that this distinction between economic anxiety and internet security worries should be made clear: “Our research suggests that economic concern and price have not affected the way people shop online, but instead security concerns are the driving force behind whether a transaction is completed or terminated.”

To resolve consumer concern over internet security, the McAfee study concludes that the use of trustmarks is a vital part of assuring customers their private details are safe. According to Harris Interactive’s research, 63% of those in the study would not purchase from a site which does not have a displayed trustmark or security policy. Customers believe so strongly in the trustmark system that, in McAfee’s study, one in five would not purchase from a website which did not display one.

These trustmarks have been proved to aptly demonstrate a website’s level of security. A recent Yankee Group whitepaper found that trustmarks, such as the ones used by McAfee SECURE, deliver some of the highest levels of protection. This protection is in turn reflected in the sales of a website. The whitepaper also showed that sites using a McAfee SECURE trustmark see a 12% increase in online sale conversions.

Not only can trustmarks help put consumer worries over safety at bay, but they can help smaller online companies stand shoulder to shoulder with larger retailers. If a smaller website displays a trustmark, this provides the smaller business with an important level of credibility. The McAfee study has even revealed that a third of participants said that they would prefer to buy from a smaller online business if it displayed a trustmark, rather than using a larger company.

McAfee SECURE provides top-class security to the vulnerable customers in question; their trustmarks are only given to websites which pass a multitude of daily tests that rigorously examine the reaction to potential threats. Alongside this, McAfee carries out daily network perimeter scanning and test to ensure spyware and malware is protected against, and conducts business practice review for website owners and online retailers.

Any site using McAfee SECURE can also demonstrate to potential customers PCI-compliance, which is the standard for the payment card industry. If a customer is using McAfee SiteAdvisor, then a site’s trustmark can appear next to the online retailer’s link in a search result. This gives them a way to stand out against others in a long list of results when a customer is searching for an e-tailer website.

Guest Article by Neil Camp