Friday, July 11, 2003

McAfee Test Probe Flunks Other Security Products Good marketing or deceptive practices? You be the judge on this gripe I recently received from a reader: I recently upgraded my anti-virus protection to McAfee 7.02 Professional. The package comes with a nifty little marketing nuisance called "McAfee Security Center." This obnoxious little ploy includes a "security assessment" of the following areas: "My Security Index" (mine is a mediocre 5.8 on a scale of 10.0), "My Antivirus Index" (mine is a perfect 10.0! Probably because I am running McAfee's product), "My Antihacker Index" (In my case an abysmal 1.0), "My Antiabuse Index" (Only scored 1.0 again), and "My Antispam Index" (1.0 a final time). Obviously there is an unknown weighting involved, since I can't make the math do a 5.8 from the component indices. Each index is, I believe, tied to McAfee's products: VirusScan, Personal Firewall, and Spamkiller respectively. I failed the McAfee test in spite of a well configured security set: Sygate Personal Firewall Pro (McAfee's test probes didnt touch me by their own admission), AdAware 6.0, SyBot Search and Destroy, and Pest Patrol...all of which I employ regularly to their fullest. All this and I flunked? McAfee should be ashamed trying to scare folks into thinking they are vulnerable when it ain't necessarily so. For a company in the security business to tell me I am vulnerable because I am not running their stuff is reprehensible marketing at its worst. 10:37:19 AM    comment []