McAfee Announces First Virus Protection Solution for Sun Solaris Servers; VirusScan for Solaris Prevents Unix Servers from Providing Safe Haven to Computer Viruses

Business Wire, Feb 22, 1996

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 1996--McAfee (Nasdaq: MCAF), the world's leading vendor of anti-virus software, today announced VirusScan for Solaris, the first anti-virus scanner for Sun Solaris.

VirusScan for Solaris prevents Unix servers from providing safe haven or transport to computer viruses that threaten heterogeneous network environments.

The announcement marks McAfee's latest move to upsize its product line to support all leading enterprise network security and management platforms, including NetWare, Windows NT, Unix, and the Internet. According to data published in 1995 by market researcher IDC, McAfee is the world's leading vendor of standalone anti-virus software for DOS and Windows PC desktops, with an estimated worldwide unit marketshare of 68%.

"Solaris is a popular operating system for Web servers, FTP servers, and file servers in client/server network environments," said Igor Grebert, anti-virus product manager at McAfee. "Despite the relative lack of Unix-specific viruses, these servers can harbor viruses capable of infecting network-attached workstations running other operating systems such as DOS and Windows. VirusScan for Solaris plugs a major security hole left open by traditional anti-virus vendors who have neglected to recognize the importance of Unix file server security in heterogeneous network environments."

McAfee's development of a Solaris anti-virus solution was prompted by increasing customer demand for heterogeneous support of existing and emerging computing platforms. Recent developments such as the rapid proliferation of Macro viruses, the introduction of the Windows 95-specific Boza virus, as well as the recent Princeton University discovery of potential security flaws in Netscape Navigator and Sun Java applets, serve as proof of concept that emerging computing platforms continue to be vulnerable to opportunistic virus writers. As the world's leading anti-virus researcher and vendor, McAfee is committed to providing its customers with proactive defenses to these emerging threats. By working closely with leading vendors such as Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Novell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, AST and Apple, McAfee is committed to decreasing the virus vulnerability of all computing platforms.

"Computer viruses pose an increasing threat to the performance, availability, and data integrity of large heterogeneous networks," said Theo Forbath, consultant at Northeast Consulting Resources, Inc., a leading business and IT consulting firm based in Boston, Mass. "With its entry into the Unix anti-virus space, McAfee can now provide comprehensive mixed-platform support for the most demanding enterprise networks."

Full-Featured Virus Protection for Solaris

VirusScan for Solaris delivers comprehensive anti-virus security for Solaris-based workstations, Web servers, FTP servers, and file servers. The product detects and removes over 6,000 computer viruses of all types, including polymorphic viruses; stealth viruses, multi-partite viruses; encrypted viruses; file viruses; and the newest macro viruses. VirusScan also scans compressed files. For simplified manageability, VirusScan for Solaris utilizes the same VirusScan data file detection updates as McAfee's VirusScan family for DOS, Windows, and NT.

VirusScan for Solaris provides Unix server administrators a high degree of scanning flexibility and ease of use. The product supports sequestering of infected files, recursive directory tree scanning and a variety of reporting options.

McAfee Provides Industry's Most Comprehensive Anti-Virus Family

McAfee provides the industry's most comprehensive line of anti-virus software and hardware solutions designed to protect against computer viruses on all major desktop and network computing platforms including DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, Unix, OS/2, and the Macintosh. McAfee's flagship anti-virus product for desktop computers, VirusScan, has over 10 million users worldwide. NetShield, McAfee's award-winning anti-virus software for networks, protects NetWare and NT servers. WebScan, an anti-virus scanner for Web browsers, protects computer users from accidentally downloading virus-infected files from the Internet. For specialized boot virus prevention, McAfee sells BootShield software and licenses its ROMShield firmware to leading PC systems and network adapter companies.

Pricing and Availability

VirusScan for Solaris enters external beta test this week and is expected to begin shipping in March. VirusScan for Solaris will be priced based on the number of servers, with quantity-one pricing expected to begin around $200 per server.

VirusScan for Solaris will initially support Solaris 2.4, the dominant operating system for Sun's popular family of high-end workstations and Internet/Intranet servers. Support for additional flavors of Unix is planned for the third and fourth quarters of 1996.

Founded in 1989, McAfee is a leading vendor of Network Security and Network Management products for the PC network management market. The company is also a leader in Internet and Web-based electronic software distribution. McAfee is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and can be reached by phone at 408/988-3832 or by fax at 408/970-9727. McAfee's Web address is http://www.mcafee.com.