NAI, CA get tougher on viruses

Latest McAfee software selectively scans.

Network Associates Inc. and Computer Associates last week separately announced antivirus-software upgrades in an effort to differentiate their offerings in a market that observers say has nearly reached commodity status.

Network Associates' McAfee Security business says a major improvement in its VirusScan Enterprise 7.0 software is that it no longer scans all files for viruses. It scans only those that have changed, in an effort to consume less processing power. Competitor Sophos takes a similar approach.

McAfee's Windows-based desktop and server software also can be configured to ignore certain files designated "low risk."

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Network Associates Inc. and Computer Associates last week separately announced antivirus-software upgrades in an effort to differentiate their offerings in a market that observers say has nearly reached commodity status.

Network Associates' McAfee Security business says a major improvement in its VirusScan Enterprise 7.0 software is that it no longer scans all files for viruses. It scans only those that have changed, in an effort to consume less processing power. Competitor Sophos takes a similar approach.

McAfee's Windows-based desktop and server software also can be configured to ignore certain files designated "low risk."

"An example would be a CAD program, say 50 megabytes big, and previously VirusScan would be chugging through that," says Ryan McGee, director of product marketing for McAfee Security. "Some applications don't get along that well with antivirus software."

VirusScan 7.0, which costs $45 per node, also now can scan in memory, which should help flush out computer worms, such as the recent MS-SQL Slammer, that remain resident in memory.

Computer Associates, which also announced Version 7.0 of its antivirus product, contends that its software already has the ability to scan in memory.

New to CA's eTrust Antivirus 7.0 is technology called Roam About, designed to optimize the downloading of virus signature updates. Updates now can be issued from the nearest server. Previously, end users were assigned to specific servers.

McAfee says its software has a similar capability. The company also says distributing VirusScan should be less bandwidth-intensive now, given that the software has been reduced about 30% in size to 10M bytes.

The eTrust Antivirus 7.0 product, which now supports Microsoft XP and Pocket PC as well as other 40 computer platforms, is priced at $35 per user.

Hartford Hospital, which runs about a dozen medical facilities in the Northeast, is testing a beta version of the latest eTrust Antivirus product, with an eye toward using Roam About updating for medical professionals who often use their laptops outside the Hartford medical facilities.

"After being hit badly by the Nimda worm, which knocked out 2,500 machines and took us two and a half weeks to clean up, we now have a strict policy about using antivirus software," says Chuck Slenker, a systems engineer.

Read more about security in Network World's Security section.