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McAfee readies virus-scanning appliances
From: InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 17:03:51 -0600
http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/stories/general/0,11011,2691092,00.html By Dennis Fisher, eWEEK February 28, 2001 3:37 PM ET Hoping to expand on its lead in the corporate anti-virus market, McAfee next month will unveil what it is calling the first line of dedicated virus-scanning appliances. The Linux-based machines, known as WebShield ASaP, will sit at the edge of a customer's network and do nothing but scan incoming and outgoing packets for viruses, thus decreasing the load on network servers that typically perform this task. "Anti-virus is a very CPU-intensive job," said Zach Nelson, chief strategy officer at Network Associates Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif., parent company of McAfee. "In a big company, it can really slow down the network because it has to open each packet, scrutinize it and compare it against a database." The WebShield appliance, which will be capable of scanning as many as 75,000 e-mails an hour, is in beta tests now and is scheduled to launch at the end of March. The line will consist of three machines: an Intel Corp. Celeron-based model, a Pentium III model and a high-end box with dual Pentium III processors. First real hardware foray Once the appliance is installed, an administrator will be able to go to the McAfee Web site and set the policies and configuration for the box. The Secure Beat software loaded on WebShield ASaP will then contact the site once a minute to check for virus up-dates, Nelson said. The appliance represents something of a departure for Network Associates, which has traditionally concentrated strictly on software. Although the company currently sells the WebShield E-ppliance pre-loaded with anti-virus software, Nelson said WebShield ASaP is Network Associates' first real foray into the hardware business. The main difference is that the new machines will be monitored around the clock by McAfee's Network Operations Center. The company decided to go with Linux as opposed to Windows so that it could strip out all of the superfluous portions of the OS and fine-tune it for the anti-virus and security functions, company officials said. McAfee, which has yet to announce pricing for the new machines, is targeting WebShield ASaP at the midsize to large enterprise and service-provider markets. The appliances will have multi-domain and multi-client support as well as content-filtering capabilities. ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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