McAfee Security’s ‘Independence From Spam Day’ Frees Consumers From the 40-Plus Minutes Per Week Spent Deleting Spam

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — An emerging Internet tyrant, email spam, now dictates how consumers spend their time. The “McAfee(R) Americans and Spam Survey” revealed that 49% of Americans spend more than 40 minutes per week deleting spam, with 14% reporting they spend as much as three and a half hours a week — or 7.5 days per year — on this task. Leading the charge against this unwanted inbox scourge, McAfee Security today proclaimed July 4, 2003 “Independence from Spam Day” with a pledge to provide copies of McAfee SpamKiller(TM), the company’s award-winning email spam filtering program, to the first 1,776 visitors to www.mcafee.com on the Fourth of July at no cost. To support the effort, Office Max will give away boxes of SpamKiller to the first 20 visitors at each of its 922 stores nationwide on July 4.

In addition, throughout the months of July, August and September, consumers can further benefit from the fight against spam through McAfee’s “Spam-Free Summer” campaign that provides a mail-in rebate for the entire cost of SpamKiller to anyone who purchases it along with McAfee VirusScan(R) at major retailers in the United States.

“Consumers’ freedom on the Internet is being challenged by billions of unwanted, unsolicited email spam messages every day, akin to the intrusive calls of telemarketers at dinnertime or when you’re on an important call,” said Lisa Henderson, vice president of consumer marketing, for the McAfee Consumer division at Network Associates. “McAfee SpamKiller is a powerful technology that helps consumers eliminate clogged inboxes — saving them time and allowing them to use the Internet the way it was intended.”

Survey finds consumers waste valuable time deleting spam The “McAfee(R) Americans and spam survey” identified email spam as the No. 1 technology time waster (49%) by wide margins over other tech annoyances including automated voice response systems (24%) and slow Internet connections (19%). Respondents deleted spam dozens of times more per week (30.6 times) than they did other activities including calling parents (3.39 times), exercising (3.32 times), reading to kids (2.81 times) and even having sex (2.18 times).

Excluding pornography, the most frequent form of spam, the survey found that the most common spam messages to reach consumers’ in-boxes were about refinancing (30%), credit counseling (27%) and sexual enhancement products (27%).

Spam abuse has become so uncontrolled that consumers polled believe it will take either a Supreme Court ruling (46%) or a spammer getting sent to jail (45%) to put an end to the reign of spam.

Equipping consumers against spam
Until a Supreme Court ruling or other major change occurs, consumers must fight email spam using a combination of common sense and spam-prevention technology. McAfee offers the following tips to help consumers free themselves from spam while spending time online.

— Use public email addresses to surf. Set up a separate email address to be used when entering chat rooms or surfing the Web. Using this address can lessen the amount of email spam your primary email account will receive.
— Layer your spam protection. Even if your Internet service provider (ISP) filters spam, install a desktop-based application such as McAfee SpamKiller to keep your in-box virtually spam-free.
— Don’t share your email address. Entering your email address on online dating, job search, auction or other Web sites may lead to an increase in spam emails. Check out a Web site’s privacy policy before sharing any information, and “opt out” of receiving additional information if you don’t want it.

Survey Background
The “McAfee(R) Americans and spam survey” was conducted from June 6 through June 16, 2003 by Equat!on Research of Estes Park, CO. The survey obtained results from a total of 1,528 online participants. The sample was weighted to provide a nationally representative and projectable estimate of the adult online population, age 18 and older. Sampling error for a survey of this size is +/- 3.0% at the 95% confidence level.

About McAfee SpamKiller
McAfee SpamKiller is currently available for PCs with Windows 9x, ME, 2000, or XP operating systems. McAfee SpamKiller supports POP3, MAPI and MSN Hotmail email protocols. Users can purchase SpamKiller for the suggested retail price of $29.99 (USD) at leading retailers nationwide. For more information on McAfee SpamKiller visit: www.mcafee.com.

McAfee Security for Consumers is a division of Network Associates, Inc. (NYSE: NET), that delivers world-class retail and online solutions designed to secure, protect and optimize the computers of consumers and home office users. McAfee’s advanced retail desktop solutions include premier anti-virus, security, encryption, and desktop optimization software. McAfee’s managed Web security services employ a patented system and process of delivering software through an Internet browser to provide these services to users online through its Web site www.mcafee.com, one of the largest paid subscription sites on the Internet with over two million active paid subscribers. About Network Associates, Inc. With headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., Network Associates, Inc. is a leading supplier of intrusion prevention solutions for enterprises, small and medium size businesses, home office users and consumers. Network Associates is comprised of three product groups: McAfee Security, delivering world-class anti-virus and security products and services; Sniffer(R) Technologies, a leader in network availability and system security; and Magic Solutions(R), a leader in innovative service management solutions. For more information, Network Associates(R) can be reached at +1-972-308-9960 or on the Internet at http://www.networkassociates.com . NOTE: Network Associates, McAfee, McAfee.com, McAfee SpamKiller, Sniffer, and Magic Solutions are registered trademarks or trademarks of Network Associates, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the US and/or other countries. Sniffer(R) brand products are made only by Network Associates, Inc. All other registered and unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.