Canadian Firms Lack Antispyware Tools

As enterprise-level antispyware tools become available to protectbusinesses from potentially unwanted programs, many Canadian firms haveyet to integrate these mechanisms into their information securityinfrastructure.

According to Jack Sebbag, Canadian vice-president and general managerfor McAfee Inc., based in Pointe-Claire, Que., more than 60 per cent ofMcAfee’s enterprise clients have yet to install antispyware programs ontheir network.

Sebbag stressed, however, that these companies are already aware of the spyware problem in the enterprise.

Yet despite increased awareness among businesses of the need to protectagainst potentially hazardous spyware, there is certainly less hastewhen it comes to actually acting on that realization, he said.

And it’s not because businesses are undermining the importance of antispyware in their organization.

The McAfee executive explained whenever a company invests on a newproject, it normally goes through a process of identifying the issue,determining the budget and testing the new program across the entireorganization.

“That’s why it takes a long time for enterprises to implementantispyware,” said Sebbag. He added the whole process usually takesthree to six months.

McAfee this week unveiled antispyware software for business customersto block and eliminate adware, dialers, keyloggers, cookies andremote-control programs, such as bots.

McAfee AntiSpyware Enterprise can be managed via the same console usedto manage McAfee’s anti-virus products, the ePolicy Orchestrator forlarger companies, or the Protection Pilot for small offices. McAfeealso announced its managed online anti-virus scanning service has addedspyware detection and will be offered under a new name, McAfee ManagedVirusScan plus AntiSpyware.

The McAfee AntiSpyware Enterprise software and the online antivirusservice use the same spyware-detection signatures, said McAfeemarketing manager Lillian Wu.

She said McAfee is charging 35 percent more for the additional spywaredetection that’s now part of the online antivirus service, making thetotal cost US$36 per user per year. However, the additional antispywarefunctionality will be provided without additional cost to existingVirusScan customers until their VirusScan contract expires and is setfor renewal.

The only competitor offering the same type of combined antivirus andantispyware scanning service is Panda Software. Many security softwarevendors, such as Computer Associates and Symantec, offer antispywareproducts.

By Mari-Len De Guzman – ITWorldCanada.com (Ellen Messmer of Network World (US) contributed to this article)