Items tagged with McAfee
John McAfee, the man behind McAfee Antivirus, has quite a long and storied history, from running for president to running from authorities. Now, McAfee is getting a few more items tacked on to his absurd life story: cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged John McAfee for “promoting investments in initial coin offerings (ICOs) to his Twitter followers without disclosing that he was paid to do so.” The allegations stem from McAfee, who seemingly “promoted multiple ICOs on Twitter, allegedly pretending to be impartial and independent even though he was paid more than $23 million in digital assets for the promotions.”...
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The April Patch Tuesday update, which landed on April 9 for Windows systems, is still wreaking havoc on numerous systems. As we've previously reported, the KB4493472 has been especially problematic for antivirus programs -- Sophos Endpoint Protection was among the first to encounter problems, while Avira and Avast were other victims. We're now learning that McAfee software has also been affected by the Patch Tuesday updates. In this case, two software programs have been identified by Microsoft and McAfee as currently being incompatible: McAfee Endpoint Security (ENS) Threat Prevention 10.x and McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention (Host IPS) 8.0. According to Microsoft's updated release...
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Bloatware has unfortunately become a fact of life when it comes to many of the electronic devices that we purchase these days. Chances are if you buy a PC or carrier-locked smartphone, it will come preinstalled with bloatware that -- 99 percent of the time -- you won’t even need or use. Samsung and McAfee have just announced a partnership that will see the firm's security/antivirus suite preinstalled on the brand new Galaxy S10 family of smartphones. While that move is somewhat expected (but mostly unnecessary) these days for an Android phone that will see its fair share of app downloads, the partnership also extends to Samsung Smart TVs. Wait, what??That's right, all of Samsung's...
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Alexa is constantly gaining new skills with some coming directly from Amazon, and other skills coming from third-party programmers. One of the latest skills that Alexa has picked up is one that can help you control your wireless network. At MWC 2018, McAfee announced a new Alexa skill that lets you check on the security of your router and network without having to launch an app or go to your computer. The skills enable voice controls for McAfee network security features and include commands like: "Alexa, ask McAfee to scan my network" "Alexa, ask McAfee how many devices are online right now" "Alexa, ask McAfee to block/unblock {Device1}" "Alexa, ask McAfee to pause the internet for {kid1}" These...
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Intel has sold more than half of its stake in McAfee, the security outfit it acquired in 2010 for $7.68 billion, and will not support the brand as a standalone company. The deal makes McAfee one of the largest pure-play cybersecurity firms in the world. Upon closing the transaction, McAfee CEO Christopher D. Young wrote an open letter to Intel Security's stakeholders expressing optimism for the company's future. "Today, a new McAfee is born," Young wrote. "One that promises customers cybersecurity outcomes, not fragmented products. One that vows to move this industry forward by working with competitors, not just partners. And, one that offers employees a calling, not simply a career." "Today...
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John McAfee, the antivirus pioneer who created one of the world's most popular security programs and later sold it to Intel for $7.68 billion, is now suing the Santa Clara chip maker for the rights to his name. Apparently McAfee wants to rename his digital gaming company MGT Capital Investments Inc. to John McAfee Global Technologies Inc. Since McAfee named his former antivirus software company after himself as McAfee Associates, Inc. in 1987 and then ultimately sold the security outfit to Intel, he's put himself in tough spot. Intel has already told him that if he proceeds with his plan, he'll be infringing on trademarks that were transferred to the company as part of the sale, according to...
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Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is reportedly mulling a sale of its cyber security business, depending on how much it's worth on the open market. The Santa Clara outfit would like to recoup the nearly $7.7 billion it paid for McAfee in 2010. Now known as Intel Security, it could be an enticing option for private equity investors looking to buy a stake in the fast growing cyber security market.With high profile security breaches on the rise, corporate entities are looking for ways to keep their businesses safe from online threats. That's created a hot market for security firms. As the Financial Times points out, Bain Capital sold Blue Coat Security to Symantec for nearly twice what it paid...
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John McAfee is adding a new bullet point to his resume: U.S. presidential candidate. Yes, this is the same McAfee who developed the first commercial antivirus software for computers, which was later sold to Intel, and it's same McAfee who fled his residence in Belize after his neighbor turned up dead.This is not a joke or a hoax. McAfee filed the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for president, paperwork that The Hill said it "confirmed" as being authentic with Kyle Sander, one of McAfee's campaign directors. According to Sander, McAfee will create a "new party yet to be announced."McAfee grew to prominence and wealth in the 1980s when he peddled antivirus software...
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It's said that real life is sometimes stranger than fiction, and that couldn't be any more truer when it comes to John McAfee, a former programmer for NASA and founder of McAfee Associates, a computer antivirus company that's now owned by Intel. His story contains drugs, an unsolved murder investigation, foreign government conspiracies, and even a faked heart attack, some of which he'll discuss during a Dateline NBC special titled "The Fugitive Millionaire" that's set to air on Thursday, March 26 at 8pm/7c. We have the inside scoop. NBC Universal provided HotHardware with a few excerpts of the interview, which cover his troubles in Belize and his new company Future Tense. With regards to the...
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Flappy Bird developer Dong Nguyen has promised to bring his popular game back to app stores in August complete with a multiplayer component next time around, but if that isn't incentive enough to wait for the real deal, perhaps the risk of malware infection will push you to patience. According to the latest Threats Report from McAfee Labs, nearly 80 percent of the Flappy Bird clones contain malicious code. McAfee sampled 300 Flappy Bird clones late in the first quarter of this year. Of those 300 samples, 238 of them were malicious. That means you have a mere 1 in 5 shot at picking out a harmless clone if you go in search for a Flappy Bird knockoff. Some malicious clones are worse than others,...
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In the quest to quell all the malware that persists in the world, you need a good antimalware solution, but one is not just as good as the next. In a new report, Dennis Technology Labs compared 9 of the top anti-malware products from various companies to see which handled the onslaught the best. Kaspersky Internet Security 2014 topped the list, boasting 100% “Legitimate Accuracy” and 99% “Total Accuracy”, while ESET Smart Security 7 wasn’t far behind with 100% and 98% respectively, and third place went to Norton Internet Security with 97% and 97%. Bringing up the rear in ugly fashion was Microsoft Security Essentials and McAfee Internet Security. Microsoft’s...
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You know malware is a steadily growing problem, but if you aren’t tuned into the cyber security industry, you might not know just how fast the threat is exploding. Hackers are taking computers hostage, stealing credit card data at ever-increasing rates, and spammers are winning the email war. McAfee released a new report that documents trending malware problems and shines a light on Deep Web, the underbelly of the Internet. The browser remains a top entry point for cyber attackers. Image credit: McAfee It’s been a banner year for malware. Rootkits are a major problem, as are the autorun viruses that sit on USB drives, waiting for someone to plug the drive into a new PC. As McAfee...
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Intel’s McAfee Division Alleged to Have Grossly Exaggerated ‘Trillion-Dollar’ Global Cost of Hacking
Well now, this is awkward. You may recall a study conducted by McAfee a few years back in which it was revealed that businesses were at risk of losing over $1 trillion from "loss or theft of data and other cybercrime." That figure has been cited on more than one occasion by top government officials, including President Barack Obama, but it turns out the the financial impact of hacking may have been grossly exaggerated. In a report scheduled to be released on Monday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), McAfee admits that its previous figure might be three times the actual impact, Reuters reports. What's unfortunate is that the original study from 2009 has been used by...
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Adobe is getting the word out that a flaw related to its Acrobat and Reader software can cause some data leakage from PDFs. The company’s Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) noted the issue on its blog and promised to solve the problem with the next security update to Adobe Reader and Acrobat, which is slated for May 14th. Adobe's headquarters in San Jose, Calif. Image credit: Adobe Adobe views the data leakage issue to be a “low severity” problem, as the only information that ends up being exposed is the users IP address and timestamp. The problem only occurs when a “specially crafted PDF” is opened, according to Adobe. Security firm McAfee Labs, which...
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It’s not clear how many jobs will be lost, but according to a Reuters report, at least a small percentage of Intel’s McAfee security division will be getting the pink slip soon. McAfee has about 7,100 employees, so even a “small percentage” could be a lot of people. McAfee is best known for its desktop PC security software, and the division--which was apparently worth up to $7.7 billion when Intel bought it early last year--and a dip in PC sales market-wide may be having an impact on McAfee’s bottom line as it competes with number one security software maker Symantec. McAfee headquarters Both companies may be facing increasing pressure from the new version of Windows...
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During the Day Two keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum, Renee James, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel’s Software & Services Group, talked about software development, security and services in an “age of transparent computing”. Much of the talk was geared towards software developers and the desire to code once and deploy across a variety of hardware platforms, which of course lead to a long discussion on the benefits and virtues HTML 5, which Intel obviously is firmly behind. During the security-centric portion of the keynote, however, Renee brought out a rep from Intel’s McAfee division to show off a beta release of the McAfee Social...
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According to the latest McAfee Threats Report, the threat of malware is stronger than it has been in the last four years. The McAfee Threats Report for the Second Quarter 2012 found an increase in malware compared to the first quarter of this year (which was previously rated as the busiest period in recent history). This increase is significant: There were 1.5 million more unique malware samples in McAfee's "zoo" collection than the previous quarter. Overall, McAfee found growth in established rootkits as well as an increase among password-stealing Trojans. Mac users aren't immune, either: McAfee found a continued growth in malware that targets the Mac. Another key finding in the report...
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Firefox has had its share of problems over the years, the biggest (and most persistent) one being the well documented memory leak. Some suffer from it, others don't. But frequent crashes? If you happen to be experiencing those, check your add-ons, and specifically look for McAfee's SecureScan. According to Mozilla, McAfee's plug-in is known to misbehave and "causes a high volume of crashes." This behavior landed the add-on on Mozilla's 'Blocklist.' "Users are strongly encouraged to disable the problematic add-on or plugin, but may choose to continue using it if they accept the risks described," Mozilla said in a statement. "When Mozilla becomes aware of add-ons, plugins, or other third-party...
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McAfee is at the top of its game in the secure email gateway market, at least according to research firm Gartner, which placed the company in the “Leaders” quadrant of its Magic Quadrants for Secure Email Gateways. Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Secure Email Gateways Gartner has so-called “Magic Quadrants” for a variety of specific markets that indicate how various companies stack up against the competition. The quadrants are defined as follows on Gartner’s methodologies page, with the Leaders quadrant being the top of the heap: Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow. Visionaries understand where the market...
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In mid-July it was announced that the Pentagon considers cyberspace an operational theater. Now, experts at security firm McAfee have detailed a five-year-long series of cyber attacks they have dubbed "Operation Shady RAT," in a paper released Wednesday. In this case, RAT isn't about a rodent. RAT is a common acronym in the industry which stands for Remote Access Tool, software that is used by hackers and security experts to access computer networks remotely. The report listed 72 targets, covering companies and organizations in 14 countries. Many more targets, McAfee said, were present in the logs, but without sufficient information to identify them. The earliest attacks date back to mid-2006,...
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We're continually surprised at how low online scammers will go to make a quick buck. We suppose we shouldn't be; after all, these folks are some of the scum of the earth, and if you need any more proof of that, just take a look at how they're exploiting the devastating earthquake in Japan. According to security firm McAfee, within hours after the quake hit, unscrupulous cyber criminals had begun designing online scams with the intention of preying on people's good will. One such scam involves sending out fake "donate" emails that appear to come from legitimate organizations, when in fact they really link to sites setup to steal your credit card information and other personal details. If you plan...
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Intel, the largest chip maker on this or any other known planet, cleared at least one major hurdle in its attempt to acquire security firm McAfee. That hurdle? The Federal Trade Commission, which has given the proposed $7.68 billion deal its stamp of approval. "The Federal Trade Commission has concluded its review of the proposed McAfee transaction and has cleared it. We are continuing to work with the staff at the European Commission as they continue their review," Kevin Sellers, Intel VP of Investor Relations, said in a statement. The FTC's approval comes just days after mutterings that European regulators might not be too keen on the deal because of antitrust concerns. According to a report...
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