McAfee Unveils Threat Center Portal

McAfee today launched a jazzed-up Web site with a new online portal designed to help users research a wide range of security problems. Called the McAfee Threat Center, the portal was launched as part of a redesign of McAfee.com.

In addition to virus information, the portal contains new information from the company's Avert Labs division on spam, phishing, and spyware, as well as free tools and articles from McAfee security experts. A security blog is expected to be started within the next few weeks, McAfee says.

Wider Focus

The new portal extends the scope of McAfee's Web resources, according to David Marcus, a security research and communications manager for McAfee Avert. "The focus of the site previously was really focused on viruses and malware," he says. "Now it's much more representative of all the areas we do in security research."

McAfee is redesigning its Web site to make it easier for consumers and businesses to find relevant security information, free of charge, the company says. The new design is expected eventually to be incorporated into McAfee's regional Web sites around the world.

Competitors

Security researchers have no shortage of free information sources these days. The U.S. government maintains a comprehensive information portal on security vulnerabilities at www.us-cert.gov; and the SANS Institute, a security research company, runs its own community-based security information portal at www.incidents.org.

Increasingly, companies are using blogs, too, as a way to share security information with their customers. Last month, for example, Oracle chief security officer Mary Ann Davidson launched her own blog.