McAfee launches revolutionary consumer security suites

McAfee has announced the availability of its McAfee 2009 security suites, including McAfee Total Protection, McAfee Internet Security and McAfee VirusScan Plus suites. The 2009 products are available at retailers worldwide and for download at www.mcafee.com.

McAfee's new line-up changes the computer security landscape by perfectly matching a consumer's need to be protected from the myriad of ever evolving threats with an extremely fast computing experience.

The 2009 innovations and highlights include:

* Revolutionary Active Protection technology that delivers the fastest detection of malware in the world.
* Accelerated PC performance over the last year's products with less impact on start-up, shorter scan times and faster launching of common applications.
* New, powerful enterprise-grade spam protection, which catches 99% of all spam.
* Improved protection in the home with network monitoring to alert consumers when intruders connect to their network.
* Even more comprehensive protection in 2009, including file protection for sensitive financial documents and safe shop which protects from identity theft and credit card fraud when shopping online.

"We're very excited to launch our 2009 versions of consumer security software, which lead the industry in almost every category," says Jayson O'Reilly, regional director: Africa (acting) of McAfee. "With significant performance enhancements and our new Active Protection technology we now deliver the fastest detection on the market, while also delivering on the promise of unmatched PC performance."

McAfee Active Protection revolutionises the way consumers stay safe from malware. With new malware coming out every 30 seconds, security software needs to be proactive and immediate in detecting and updating PCs from the latest online threats. Traditional methods provide updates only hourly or daily, leaving consumers vulnerable. With McAfee's Active Protection, consumers are always secure as they now receive instant updates if malware is detected. McAfee 2009 is over 1 000 times faster than the next major competitor.

In addition to the fastest protection, McAfee's Active Protection technology also delivers best-in-class detection rates at 99% or better, with third party results rating it at the top among major competitors:

* West Coast Labs, July 2008 http://www.mcafee.com/West_Coast_Labs
* AV Comparatives, September 2008 http://www.mcafee.com/AV-Comparatives

Active Protection is being rolled out to consumers automatically through McAfee's version-less software model over the next several months, or it can be easily enabled on any McAfee consumer suite via the following link: http://vil.nai.com/vil/nartemisinstructions.aspx?cid=48777.

McAfee 2009 has been optimised to address how consumers use their PCs today, ensuring a consumer's experience is exceptional as they use the Web, multimedia and other demanding applications on their PC. McAfee 2009 raises the bar across the board in terms of speed, while being the most unobtrusive computer security software available. Many common activities that consumers do every day are faster than last year's version with McAfee 2009, such as:

* PC start-up times deliver 57% less impact to PCs.
* Internet Explorer launches 8% quicker, allowing consumers to enjoy the Internet faster.
* Gamers will have a better gaming experience through a four frame per second improvement during scanning.

According to tests conducted by Network Testing Labs, McAfee has much less impact on a PC than competitive offerings:

* While consumers with McAfee products enjoy proactive automatic computer scans, some users choose to run manual scans. When running manual malware scans, McAfee is faster than the leading competitors.
* The start-up time impact of running McAfee Internet Security 2009 on a new PC is just two seconds, making McAfee 13% faster than the leading competitor.

The complete performance test data can be accessed on http://www.mcafee.com/Network_Testing_Labs

Further, while non-McAfee customers struggle with uninstalls, new downloads, reboots, and the need to locate and install add-on packs, McAfee customers automatically receive the latest PC protection and newest features with no user interaction required. As a result of its version-less software model, McAfee customers always stay current.

McAfee offers the most complete protection for the PC, Internet, home network and consumer PC files. McAfee VirusScan Plus, McAfee Internet Security and McAfee Total Protection all include substantially more features than competitive consumer security software suites. These range from critical protection such as anti-phishing, anti-virus and Web site safety ratings that help consumers surf and shop safely to the ability to protect sensitive documents, back-up data, optimise PC health, and detect intruders on the family's home network.

Additional features for 2009 include:

* McAfee Anti-Theft File and Data Protection: Available as a free bonus download to McAfee Total Protection, McAfee Anti-Theft lets consumers drag and drop sensitive files into "digital" vaults onto the PC or USB drive, and encrypts the vaults, which are securely password protected. Available in English versions only.
* McAfee SECURE: As a part of our innovative Web security protection, now included with McAfee 2009 is security that helps protect consumers from identity theft and credit card fraud when shopping online. The McAfee SECURE trust mark is integrated into SiteAdvisor technology, and only appears next to the ratings of sites that pass daily testing of more than 10 000 threats.
* Quick Scan: Rapidly scan the areas of a PC most susceptible to security attacks.

To learn more about the features in McAfee's 2009 suites, please visit http://us.mcafee.com/.