CyberSecurity Institute

While the business-oriented products stand as updates from the anti-spyware applications marketed by PestPatrol before the CA buyout, the consumer package marks the first time the technology has been tailored specifically for home users by either company.

Sam Curry, vice president of eTrust security management at CA, said the company has identified more than 1,200 new strains of spyware over the last eight months–a sign of the growing threat of the nefarious software.

Spyware applications are typically installed without a user’s permission via Web browser exploits or e-mail programs, with the intent of surreptitiously tracking computer usage, stealing personal information or sending spam.

Among the primary changes CA said it made to the PestPatrol technology for business customers are improved reporting capabilities, faster spyware scanning tools and expanded customer support. The corporate version also provides security administration controls to manage protection for large numbers of desktops. In addition, executives said that CA has reworked the products’ licensing terms for companies.

The PestPatrol interface has been redesigned in the consumer package to make it easier to use by people who are not IT professionals, CA said. For instance, the Anti-Spyware r5 software, which will retail for $39, enables people to set up automated scanning schedules and receive reports on what has been fixed. That contrasts with a process where they would have to manually fix and test systems using a readout of what the software had found.

Curry said that consumers are finding that Spybot and other anti-spyware applications available for free download over the Internet can no longer tackle all varieties of spyware. He believes that customers will be willing to pay for tools that do a better job. “The most important thing for people to realize about spyware is that it doesn’t function like a virus, where you can find it and clean it off your computer fairly easily,” Curry said. “When you look at spyware, there could be hundreds more points of infection. It may not be as life or death to your computer as a virus, but there are certainly big implications about how personal a spyware attack can be.”

While many companies have identified spyware as a major concern, research shows that few are using technology specifically designed to combat the problem. In a nationwide survey of IT managers and executives released by Equation Research, 70 percent expressed growing concern over the issue, but fewer than 10 percent said they have installed anti-spyware software.

http://news.com.com/CA+gives+anti-spyware+a+consumer+face/2100-1029_3-5443428.html?part=rss&tag=5443428&subj=news.1029.5

Fred Felman, vice president of marketing at Check Point, said the new intrusion-prevention services will empower solution providers to guarantee customers up-to-the-minute protection against viruses and other network threats.

Calling upon the SmartDefense service and Zone Labs Security Advisories, Check Point will upgrade the service automatically, so its list of vulnerabilities is always up-to-date, he said. The new capabilities are part of the Redwood City, Calif.-based vendor’s Total Access Protection initiative to extend cooperation between its Integrity end-point security solution and other offerings in the Check Point product portfolio, such as the integrated firewall, VPN-1 Pro; the internal security gateway, InterSpect; and Connectra, the company’s Web security gateway.

The strategy is intended to help enterprises defend their network-connected PCs with unified remote access, end-point security, policy enforcement and hosted intrusion prevention. Eric Eder, president of Intelligent Connections, a security solution provider in Detroit, said his customers have needed more automation for handling incidents. “The ability to have centralized management control and have it be consistent across a variety of areas is really something [customers] like.”

http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/52200275;jsessionid=53OLQAFAE5TAQQSNDBCCKH0CJUMEKJVN

WSM features a variety of wireless management functions to streamline the administration of 802.11x networks: automatic WLAN (define) discovery and mapping; automatic detection and disabling of unauthorized wireless connections; access point load balancing and automatic channel allocation; and WEP (define) key management.

To take advantage of this feature, network users need to install a WSM agent — which authenticates the user — on their laptop, PDA or other mobile device.

Sumit Deshpande, vice president of development in CA’s wireless solutions group, said enterprises have been for the most part good at securing their networks from wireless snoops or unauthorized users. “What we do is make it easier for enterprises to use those standard measures to protect their environment. ”

Deshpande said the next version of WSM will be available in the next six to nine months, with 802.11i — the Wi-Fi security standard slowly wending its way through the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) process — support at the top of the list.

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3429691