McAfee sued for patent infringement

Antivirus vendor McAfee Inc . is being sued by Dallas-based security firm DeepNines Inc. because of alleged patent infringement and false product marking.


DeepNines said it was issued U.S. patent number 7,058,976 in June for its Security Edge Platform (SEP), a unified threat management product that integrates firewall, behavior- and signature-based intrusion detection (IDS) and prevention (IPS), antivirus and traffic management into a single device.

But, DeepNines claims, Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee has been marking and selling about nine separate products that claim the patent as its own, including McAfee IntruShield and Total Protection, which the vendor released in April to much fanfare.

As a result, DeepNines is seeking damages and a permanent injunction to prevent McAfee from marketing and selling the infringing products, company president Dan Jackson said in a phone interview Thursday morning. Law firm Fish & Richardson P.C. is representing DeepNines, and the lawsuit has been filed in United States District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.

"We intend to protect our intellectual property, just as we respect the intellectual property rights of others" he said. "Although DeepNines continuously monitors the products of its competitors, at this point, our focus remains on McAfee for both infringing our patent and falsely marking its products with a patent that is invalid and purports to claim the same invention covered by our patent."

Jackson would not specify what damages his company is seeking. DeepNines was founded in 1999 and claims to have more than 200 product installations across industries such as financial services, education, energy and government.

McAfee spokesperson Siobhan MacDermott declined to offer a detailed response about the lawsuit because she had not yet seen a copy of the full document. She did note that McAfee has its own lawsuit pending against DeepNines, but she couldn't offer details about that lawsuit, other than that it was filed in January.

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The state of hacking in the world today

According to the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, the world is loosing about one Trillion dollars a year due to credit card and wire fraud (I picked their estimate because it was the highest).

There has been an 80% jump in credit card and wire fraud in the last two years. Crime syndicates are to blame. This increase in cybercrime will continue. It seems that the business model is very attractive to them:

1. Hire a few programmers worldwide to scan thousands of IT systems for security holes . Often, the bulk of the scanning is done by thousands of home and business computers that are remote controlled into doing this work. The computer's owners are not aware that their computer is doing this work in the background. Spyware and viruses are the primary method by which an unsuspecting person's computer is remote controlled to do this work. Specific industries are usually targeted such as third party credit card processing firms.


2. An alternative method to collect this information is to send millions of random emails nicely asking people to hand over or "verify" their banking information. Incredibly this works.


3. The results of these scans are then passed to the crime syndicate staff programmers for focused and advanced attacks. These programmers are typically in foreign countries where US law Enforcement has limited or no influence.


4. Once a system is breached, identity, credit card and banking information is collected.


5. This collected information is used to electronically steal money or goods.

This type of crime is currently very low risk, low investment and high return for the crime syndicates. What can you do?

1. Do not connect your PC directly to your cable modem. At a minimum use any of the Cable/DSL Routers made by companies such as Netgear or Linksys or most any other brand. Their presence alone will stop over 90% of malware from reaching your computer.


2. Make sure that your antivirus and anti-spyware software are current. I can recommend McAfee or AVG for antivirus and, Spybot and Malwarebytes for anti-spyware. Many other products are also excellent.


3. Do not answer any requests that you receive in email to update or give or verify your banking information. Your bank will never ever ask you for this in an email


4. Do not open any attachments that you are not expecting, regardless of who they are from.


5. Review your credit card bill for unexpected charges, including monthly charges for small amounts such as $3.59.

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Enterprise-level spyware protection for your business

Protect your users and systems from spyware before it gets a foothold. Reduce the risks associated with spyware-identity theft, network corruption, loss of productivity, and slower Internet access-with industrial-strength McAfee AntiSpyware. Our award-winning on-access scanning technology stops spyware in its tracks before it can compromise confidential information and slow down your business.

Benefits:


Optimized for business


McAfee AntiSpyware meets the scalability and management requirements of businesses; it offers proactive protection against potentially unwanted programs that may affect your network, your users, and your productivity Detects and keeps spyware out before it's too late


Block and defeat spyware before it can install and multiply using McAfee AntiSpyware's unique on-access scanning technology Keep your users and systems free of spyware


Stop the latest known spyware; McAfee's AntiSpyware's signature files get daily updates from McAfee Avert® Labs Find and stop unknown spyware without having to wait for updated lists


You can't just wait for updated spyware signature files; McAfee AntiSpyware uses behavioral-based heuristic technology to detect and block as-yet-unknown spyware Features:


On-access scanning


Detects and blocks spyware before it installs and spreads; scans processes and files running in memory to neutralize them before they take root because removing one process from memory is faster than trying to remove dozens of spawned applications Stops spyware and viruses efficiently


McAfee AntiSpyware stops both spyware and viruses when it's integrated with McAfee VirusScan®; they share a single scanning engine to reduce system overhead and increase system performance Scan for spyware in the registry and files


It effectively blocks annoying spyware reinstallation because it scans for both registry entries and files; it removes damaging security threats and annoying adware popups that can disrupt productivity

Spyware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) like adware, keyloggers, and dialers can do some serious damage if left unchecked. Don't let spyware bog down your network or compromise the safety of your employees and your confidential data. Security-minded businesses owe it to themselves and to their employees to combat these insidious threats. McAfee AntiSpyware offers enterprise-grade protection against potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) with our unique on-access scanning technology.

Unlike other software that deals with spyware after the fact, McAfee AntiSpyware catches it before it installs, so that it can't spawn other programs or files that can end up installing in your applications or registry entries. Using behavioral-based methods and daily registry-signature updates, McAfee AntiSpyware finds and blocks both known and unknown spyware.

Your AntiSpyware and PUP database is maintained by McAfee Avert® Labs, the world's top threat research center. When you integrate AntiSpyware with McAfee VirusScan®, you combine spyware and virus protection in a single scanning engine that's easier to manage and maintains high performance.

System requirements for McAfee AntiSpyware standalone and integrated versions. You will need McAfee VirusScan® for the integrated version.

Workstation requirements


Microsoft Windows NT 4, Microsoft Windows 2000/2003, or Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) Server requirements


Microsoft Windows NT 4 Server, Microsoft Windows NT 4 Terminal Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Microsoft Windows 2000 DataCenter Server, Microsoft Windows Standard Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), Microsoft Windows Enterprise Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), or Microsoft Windows Web Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit)

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McAfee AntiSpyware

Enterprise-level spyware protection for your business


Protect your users and systems from spyware before it gets a foothold. Reduce the risks associated with spyware-identity theft, network corruption, loss of productivity, and slower Internet access-with industrial-strength McAfee AntiSpyware. Our award-winning on-access scanning technology stops spyware in its tracks before it can compromise confidential information and slow down your business.

Benefits:


Optimized for business


McAfee AntiSpyware meets the scalability and management requirements of businesses; it offers proactive protection against potentially unwanted programs that may affect your network, your users, and your productivity Detects and keeps spyware out before it's too late


Block and defeat spyware before it can install and multiply using McAfee AntiSpyware's unique on-access scanning technology Keep your users and systems free of spyware


Stop the latest known spyware; McAfee's AntiSpyware's signature files get daily updates from McAfee Avert® Labs Find and stop unknown spyware without having to wait for updated lists


You can't just wait for updated spyware signature files; McAfee AntiSpyware uses behavioral-based heuristic technology to detect and block as-yet-unknown spyware Features:


On-access scanning


Detects and blocks spyware before it installs and spreads; scans processes and files running in memory to neutralize them before they take root because removing one process from memory is faster than trying to remove dozens of spawned applications Stops spyware and viruses efficiently


McAfee AntiSpyware stops both spyware and viruses when it's integrated with McAfee VirusScan®; they share a single scanning engine to reduce system overhead and increase system performance Scan for spyware in the registry and files


It effectively blocks annoying spyware reinstallation because it scans for both registry entries and files; it removes damaging security threats and annoying adware popups that can disrupt productivity

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McAfee AntiSpyware

Ease of Setup/Use:

For a company with such a good reputation, we were disappointed in McAfee Anti-Spyware's feature set. Although the program offers many useful features-like Scan Scheduling, Auto Updates and Real-Time Tracking-it's missing assets such as spyware/adware descriptions and threat levels; these help you determine whether the detected spyware and adware are dangerous or benign.


Detection Effectiveness:

McAfee Anti-Spyware missed much of the spyware and adware we tested. Though marginally effective, this is not software that we recommend to those looking for high-level spyware and adware protection.


Removal Effectiveness:

McAfee Anti-Spyware is simple to use. With few customizable features, McAfee is simple for novices.


System Performance:

There are few customization tools in McAfee Anti-Spyware. You can enable and disable Real-Time Tracking abilities, but that's it.


Scan Performance:

Once you receive delivery of McAfee Anti-Spyware , installation is easy but time-consuming-the installation had us restart our computer three times before the install was completed, which we felt excessive.


Support/Documentation:

McAfee supports their products in several different ways: a FAQs page, email support and a convenient live chat feature online. However, when we contacted McAfee, their staff could not answer many of our questions.


Summary:

Although it's easy to use and comes with fairly good help support, McAfee Anti-Spyware just doesnât do well enough detecting and removing spyware to receive our recommendation. For the same amount of money, we recommend Aluria Anti-Spyware, a top-notch spyware program that is effective against spyware and adware.

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