Network Associates’ McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 Provides Consumers with the Latest Technology in 24/7 Home PC Protection
McAfee Personal Firewall Plus Helps Prevent Internet Worms, Hackers and Other Threats From Entering and Damaging Home PCs
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Network Associates(R), Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leader in intrusion prevention solutions, today announced the availability of McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 5.0, the latest version of their consumer desktop firewall, offering home users a comprehensive, easy-to-use defense for their Internet connections. McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 has been enhanced with several new features to provide increased protection from hackers, worms and trojans that can compromise home PC security.
Recent Internet worm attacks have highlighted the need for consumers — particularly users with high-speed broadband connections — to employ a desktop firewall to monitor their PCs’ communication over the Internet. Unlike typical computer viruses, which usually arrive as email attachments, Internet worms enter the PC through open communication ports on vulnerable systems and spread themselves automatically without requiring users to click on an attachment. McAfee Personal Firewall Plus prevents these worms from entering and infecting users’ PCs by acting as a protective barrier between the PC and the Internet.
“Without proper firewall protection, home users are wide open to attacks from worms, hackers and identity thieves. Recent high-profile attacks such as Blaster further illustrate the need for users to deploy an effective desktop firewall solution and block all attempts to infect their systems,” said Lisa Henderson, vice president of consumer marketing, McAfee Security division at Network Associates. “McAfee Personal Firewall Plus enhancements and new features make it the most comprehensive and user-friendly desktop firewall solution for consumers on the market today.”
McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 product highlights include the following:
— Intelligent Application Handling will automatically check to see if an application is trusted or malicious every time the application seeks Internet access. Trusted applications will be allowed access to the Internet; all other applications will be blocked.
— Advanced Trojan Detection allows the firewall to block a wide range of malicious applications, such as Trojan horse programs. McAfee has enhanced the firewall’s detection database, so it can identify and block unauthorized programs from accessing the Internet and transmitting a user’s personal and confidential data.
— Enhanced Visual Tracing tracks the path of an attempted intrusion through graphical maps and provides detailed information including origin IP addresses. The Visual Trace utility now has additional geographical data that improves the accuracy of location details and illustrates the originating source of intruders and hostile attacks.
— Enhanced HackerWatch.org Integration makes reporting potential hacker attacks easy by automatically submitting detailed information on blocked attacks to Hackerwatch.org, McAfee’s community and collection point for Internet users to share information relating to hacker attacks and other malicious Internet activity.
McAfee Personal Firewall Plus, used in conjunction with McAfee VirusScan(R) 8.0 with WormStopper(TM) technology provides users with powerful protection against virus outbreaks such as Blaster, Sobig and Nachi, which have recently plagued millions of Internet users.
Pricing & Availability
McAfee Personal Firewall Plus 5.0 is part of the new 2004 consumer product line from McAfee Security, featuring improved detection capabilities and a redesigned user interface. McAfee has integrated their online services with retail products to offer consumers a cohesive set of solutions available via subscription service or CD-ROM. Users can purchase a one-year subscription service for $39.95 (USD) through the company’s Web site www.mcafee.com. McAfee Personal Firewall Plus is also available for purchase through any retailer, e-tailer or partner selling McAfee Security products. For more information on McAfee Personal Firewall Plus and other McAfee consumer solutions, visit www.mcafee.com. For more information on HackerWatch.org, visit www.hackerwatch.org.
McAfee Security Consumer is a division of Network Associates, Inc., 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. creates best-of-breed computer security solutions that prevent intrusions on networks and protect computer systems from the next generation of blended attacks and threats. Offering two families of products, McAfee System Protection Solutions, securing desktops and servers, and McAfee Network Protection Solutions, ensuring the protection and performance of the corporate network, Network Associates(R) offers computer security to large enterprises, governments, small and medium sized businesses, and consumers. These two product portfolios incorporate Network Associates’ leading McAfee Security, Sniffer(R) Technologies and Magic Solutions(R) product lines. For more information, Network Associates can be reached at 972-963-8000 or on the Internet at http://www.networkassociates.com/ .
NOTE: Network Associates, McAfee, McAfee.com, Sniffer, VirusScan 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.