McAfee and Visa are offering Visa Classic Business card holders in the UK 50% off a one-year subscription to McAfee Total Protection.

Visa partners in the UK will be able to offer the deal to its business card holders thanks to an expanded partnership between them, the two companies said today. Visa Classic Business card holders can get up to 50% off the retail price of McAfee’s security product, including a one-year subscription to McAfee Total Protection for five or 10 devices.

The partners added that they’re offering the deal as many small business owners aren’t always able to adequately protect themselves and their customers from the increase in online risks, due to a lack of resources from a budgetary and staffing perspective. The companies underlined that over half of the data breaches in 2021 involved small businesses, according to the Verizon Business 2021 Data Breach Investigations Report.

“With increasingly complicated global issues such as the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and difficulties stemming from the global supply chain, small businesses are increasingly reliant on their digital infrastructure, and it’s never been more important to ensure the proper protections have been implemented,” said Pedro Gutierrez, SVP global consumer sales & operations at McAfee. “We are proud to partner with Visa to offer solutions to their Visa Business card holders and look forward to helping these organisations stay secure so they can focus on what matters most to their business.”

The two companies have partnered in the past to offer similar deals. In July last year, the pair launched McAfee Security for Visa card holders in the US which offered savings of up to 40% with a 24-month package and up to 60% with a 12-month offer.

Similarly, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is offering Malwarebytes Premium to its customers free of charge until at least May 2024. It partnered with the cyber security company to make its premium product, normally valued at £49.99, available for free to protect up to 10 devices.

McAfee’s an old hand at anti-malware, and it’s become a little less bloated in recent years. Despite the 2020 sell-off of the enterprise security site of the business, the consumer anti-malware division continues as a publicly traded company, with former owner Intel still holding a 49% stake.

You get a lot of features packed into McAfee Total Protection, but they’re not always the ones you’d expect. Although McAfee’s malware defence engine includes components designed to spot the telltale behaviour of ransomware attempting to encrypt your personal files, you don’t get any direct control over this as a user.

Unlike many rivals, you can’t designate specific directories for the software to monitor for and block unauthorised changes to. However, handling ransomware threats in-engine as zero-days when detected by McAfee’s behavioural analysis is a less obtrusive approach. Similarly, there’s no dedicated webcam protection module, although McAfee’s heuristic malware detection engine watches out for potential device hijacking.

Total Protection helpfully includes a dedicated firewall with a clean and pleasant interface, so you won’t have to use the Microsoft Defender Firewall’s creaky configuration UI. Also included are a vulnerability scanner to help you keep on top of required application updates, an “app boost” performance optimiser, a secure file shredder, an encrypted vault for your most sensitive data, and a “web boost” tool that prevents irritants such as auto-playing videos in chrome.

Silent detection is enabled by default to ensure that you’re not interrupted while gaming or watching videos at full screen, although the setting in question is buried in the settings menus, rather than being placed in the main interface.

You also get a copy of the McAfee True Key password manager thrown in for free, but you can do better with rivals such as Bitwarden. Family tier subscriptions include the Safe Family parental control and tracking toolkit.

In SE Labs’ latest home antivirus test, McAfee got a 100% total protection rating, meaning that it blocked all malicious software and didn’t falsely identify any benign programs as malicious or potentially unwanted.

In AV Comparatives’ most recent real-world protection test, it blocked 99.7% of malware, in common with most of its rivals, with 2 false positive identifications of legitimate software.

And it defended against 100% of malware in three of AV-Tests most recent four rounds of testing. McAfee's engine breezed through the reference malware sample set in two successive months, but only protected against all threats in August’s real-world test; in July, like a number of its rivals, it was caught out by a couple of malware exposures, but still blocked 99.3% of threats, with a single false positive. That’s only slightly less accurate than Microsoft Defender.

AV-Test’s performance data from the same period highlights a couple of minor impacts on system performance and responsiveness, however. There was a noticeable slowdown when loading websites compared to Microsoft Defender and while McAfee’s impact on software installation times was a little less pronounced than Defenders’, it was still significant compared to most rivals.

A one device, one year Total Protection account costs £29.99 for the first year and renews at £59.99 when bought from the McAfee website. The company was recently the subject of a CMA ruling finding its auto-renewal practices to be unfair, and it now more clearly highlights that its subscriptions auto-renew at a higher price and makes it easier to opt out. Renewals are still significantly more expensive than the first year’s subscription, though - more than double in the case of a ten device account.

However, as is often the case, the official price isn’t the same as the real price. A one-year, three-device key for McAfee Total Protection 2021 currently costs £11.99 from Amazon, just over a third as much as the standard introductory price for a single device, let alone the auto-renewing subscription fee.

McAfee provides some auto-renewal bonuses, notably access to the company’s Safe Connect VPN service and a money-back protection guarantee. However, even for fans of the product, this isn’t really enough added value to justify auto-renewal costs versus buying a much cheaper key elsewhere when it’s time to renew.

Total Protection does an adequate but not astonishing job. If you’re in the market for new malware protection, Kaspersky Internet Security is a better choice right now.

McAfee’s security software hasn’t always wowed us in the past but, since parting company with Intel in 2017, it’s become a persuasive contender.

That’s partly to do with value. Total Protection is McAfee’s top-of-the-line offering and one of the most feature-packed security suites we’ve seen, yet you can get a three-PC package on Amazon for just £15 a year. The slightly leaner Internet Security suite can also be had for two quid less.

McAfee Total Protection review: Features

McAfee Total Protection keeps an active watch over your system and blocks viruses and other malicious items on access. It monitors web content, too, and the free browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Internet Explorer will steer you away from dodgy websites.

Additional features include a custom firewall and access to McAfee’s True Key password manager across five devices. There’s also an automatic software updater, a simple network scanner that lets you inspect nearby LAN clients, and tools for encrypting or shredding sensitive files.

The optional App Boost component isn’t really a security feature but it can make your system feel more responsive by allocating extra system resources to foreground applications.

Also included is McAfee’s Safe Family parental control platform. This works across Windows, Android and iOS to track and block specific apps and online content, keep tabs on device location and even send you alerts when your kids enter or leave defined areas.

Most unusually, your McAfee subscription also includes a complete VPN service, with selectable servers in 23 locations around the world and no data caps. You can even set it to kick in automatically whenever you connect to a new network too – a very nice touch. The catch is that to use it you have to keep the automatic licence renewal option turned on. This could prove costly if you forget to cancel at the right time, as the price goes up significantly in the second year.

McAfee Total Protection review: Protection

McAfee’s malware engine is regularly put through its paces by both AV-Comparatives.org and AV-Test.org and, in the most recent tests carried out in the first half of 2021, Total Protection achieved a flawless 100% protection rating.

There’s a catch, though. While McAfee successfully blocked every nasty sample it was exposed to, it also wrongly flagged seven innocent items. That’s more than we’d like to see. Once you get into the habit of manually unblocking safe items, it becomes far more likely that you’ll end up unblocking something dangerous. By contrast, in the same test, F-Secure SAFE and Eset Internet Security made no mistakes at all.

McAfee Total Protection review: User interface

In the past, some McAfee products were burdened with a sluggish, overcomplicated front-end; thankfully, that’s now been completely overhauled. The current release of Total Protection is nicely responsive and neatly organised, with tabs along the top and sensibly labelled controls in the main pane.

It’s also one of the nimblest security suites around. In a range of different usage scenarios, AV-Comparatives.org and AV-Test.org reported it slowed down their test PCs by an average of 6.3%. That’s an excellent score; of the packages we’ve seen, only F-Secure SAFE did better, nosing ahead with 6.1%. Windows Defender meanwhile weighed in at a ponderous 12.5%.

Scanning is quite quick, too. McAfee Total Protection fully scanned an external hard disk containing 55GB of assorted data in well under two minutes. Again, it didn’t quite keep up with F-Secure SAFE, which whizzed through the test in 27 seconds, but many other suites took longer and Windows’ own scanner left us waiting around nearly ten minutes.

McAfee Total Protection review: Verdict

McAfee Total Protection partners slick and effective malware protection with a tempting array of genuinely useful add-ons. The fact that it can be had for such a low price makes it almost irresistible.

However, a worse than average false positive rate means you might need to be prepared to fish the odd file out of quarantine and, if you��re going to enable the VPN, make sure you set a reminder to cancel your subscription before you’re stung with a hefty renewal fee.

McAfee has launched MVISION Private Access to safeguard private applications deployed across hybrid IT environments.

“As private applications increasingly move to the cloud, organizations are rapidly adopting Zero Trust Network Access due to its security and flexibility advantages compared to VPN,” explained Christopher Rodriguez, research director at IDC Network Security.

“However, organizations need to recognize that private applications are just as likely to pose a data theft risk as SaaS apps, and that this risk needs to be mitigated.”

Upending the zero trust network access (ZTNA) arena, McAfee’s MVISION Private Access offers “granular zero trust" access to private applications hosted in private, public, or hybrid cloud environments.

By leveraging McAfee’s Endpoint Security for threat detection and remediation, the platform performs continuous risk assessment by monitoring device posture. Furthermore, MVISION Private Access is integrated with MVISION Unified Cloud Edge (UCE), enabling unified visibility and control across clouds, private applications, web, and endpoints.

MVISION Private Access’s other interesting features include remote browser isolation (RBI), granular controls for unmanaged devices, endpoint security and posture assessment, direct-to-app access, and more.

Lastly, MVISION Private Access includes built-in identity and access management (IAM) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions, enabling strong authentication and context-based access control.

“ZTNA is built for cloud-first deployments, simplifying technology stacks, reducing cost and complexity, and improving productivity. However, existing ZTNA solutions lack the data-centric security controls associated with cloud and web security needed to secure today’s increasing remote connections,” said Shishir Singh, chief product officer at McAfee Enterprise.

Singh added, “MVISION Private Access unlocks secure, seamless and ultra-fast access to private applications for remote workforces and eliminates the additional hardware costs, time-consuming setup process and complicated architecture associated with traditional VPNs.”

The number of threats leveraging PowerShell grew 208% in the last quarter of 2020, according to a new report by cybersecurity firm McAfee.

The McAfee Threats Report of April 2021 found the Q4 2020 increase was driven largely by Donoff malware. It also observed numerous PowerShell attacks using process injection to insert code into legitimate running processes as a privilege escalation technique.

Mobile malware grew 118% in Q4 due in part to a surge in SMS Reg samples, according to the report. Researchers said HiddenAds, Clicker, MoqHao, HiddenApp, Dropper, and FakeApp strains were the most detected mobile malware families.

Ransomware also grew in volume between Q3 and Q4 driven by Cryptodefense. Researchers said that REvil, Thanos, Ryuk, RansomeXX, and Maze groups topped the overall list of ransomware families.

MacOS malware exploded by 420% in Q3 due to EvilQuest ransomware but returned to normal levels in Q4. Office malware surged 199% from Q3 to Q4, and new Linux malware increased 6% at the same time.

The number of overall threats grew too. In Q3 2020, McAfee Labs observed an average of 588 threats per minute, an increase of 169 threats per minute (40%). By the fourth quarter, this average rose to 648 threats per minute, an increase of 60 threats per minute (10%). The firm also observed nearly 3.1 million external attacks on cloud user accounts.

Adam Philpott, EMEA President at McAfee, said the continued increase in threats is a harsh reminder of how quickly and effectively cyber criminals have taken advantage of COVID-19.

“As we emerge from the pandemic and look to navigate the new normal, it’s important that businesses reconsider their approach to security to ensure business resilience and their ability to mitigate increased cyber risk,” Philpott said.

Philpott added that his company’s research also saw increases in ransomware, malware, and PowerShell attacks, highlighting the importance of IT teams being aware of the wide variety of threats that could target their organizations.

“It is now critical that organizations go beyond the basics to create and maintain a secure environment. By effectively using technology to prioritize threats, predict the types of campaigns that will be launched against them and pre-emptively improve their defensive countermeasures, organizations can rest assured that they’re doing everything they can to protect their business,” Philpott added.

Cyber security giant McAfee has announced it has agreed to sell its enterprise business to a consortium led by Symphony Technology Group (STG) for $4 billion (£2.8 billion).

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2021, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

Once complete, the enterprise business will be rebranded, while McAfee will move forward focusing solely on delivering personal security for consumers under the existing brand name, the firm said.

"STG is the right partner to continue strengthening our Enterprise business, and this outcome is a testament to the business’ industry-leading solutions and most notably to the outstanding contributions of our employees,” commented Peter Leav, President and CEO of McAfee.

“This transaction will allow McAfee to singularly focus on our consumer business and to accelerate our strategy to be a leader in personal security for consumers.”

McAfee, which specialises in device-to-cloud cyber security, has grown its Enterprise business through both organic development, as well as its own acquisitions. In November 2020, the provider released its MVISION XDR offering for improved SOC response, alongside its MVISION Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP).

However, its enterprise business has stuttered in recent times, with net revenue for 2020 up just 1.2% to $1.35 billion, while its operating losses grew by 19.2% to $180 million.

By contrast, competitors such as CrowdStrike and SentinelOne have grown rapidly, while tech behemoths such as Microsoft and Cisco Systems also have an ever-increasing presence in the cyber security space.

McAfee will instead focus on its consumer business, which posted $1.56 billion in net revenue for 2020 – a 19.6% increase from its figure of $1.3 billion the year before. Operating income also grew 20.2%, increasing to $333 million from 2019's figure of $277 million.

The deal echoes a similar move by rival Symantec back in 2019, which saw the cyber security firm sell its enterprise division to Broadcom for $10.7 billion, rebranding as NortonLifeLock.

For STG, the takeover follows its $2.08 billion acquisition of encryption firm RSA back in September 2020, as well its RedSeal buyout in April 2019.

"McAfee is one of the most iconic brands in enterprise security and has a reputation for innovation, quality and leadership," said William Chisholm, Managing Partner at STG.

"We are fully committed to driving the business’ strategy to be the leading device-to-cloud cybersecurity company by partnering with McAfee’s existing world-class team to continue delivering exceptional performance to enterprises and government clients globally."

McAfee has announced its new proactive threat detection and response tool for enterprises, MVISION extended detection and response (XDR).

Designed for endpoint, cloud, and network security management, MVISION XDR allows for faster security investigations, easier automated responses, and continued modernization of existing security operations centers (SOC).

“Security teams are struggling to replace reactive, manual and time-consuming investigation processes to combat more sophisticated and more frequent attacks – all while trying to decrease the cost and complexity of overall management,” said Shishir Singh, chief product officer at McAfee.

“MVISION XDR provides proactive and actionable context across key vectors to simplify, accelerate and automate threat validation and response across the enterprise thereby making the most of SOC resources and mitigating potential disruption to the business.”

By granting analysts greater control and a more comprehensive view of threat context beyond endpoints, McAfee’s new cloud-native tool offers a better understanding of threats – before organizations incur damage.

Other MVISION XDR benefits include:

• Proactive and actionable intelligence that prioritizes threats and prescribes countermeasures
• Artificial intelligence (AI)-guided investigations to simplify probes across sophisticated threat campaigns
• Cloud threat integration to provide context for web activity
• Network telemetry prioritization to offer a better understanding of network threats by automatically correlating with curated threats
• Efficient integration with existing SOC infrastructure and tools for maximum return on SOC investment

“Organizations can no longer afford ineffective disparate threat and response tools and context,” adds Jon Oltsik, senior principal analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.

“With XDR, we are seeing an opportunity to take the SOC as we know it to the next level – moving from operating in a time and resource intense reactive manner with existing, disparate tools to using a comprehensive and integrated XDR solution that can not only proactively predict mal-activity, but also help drive faster remediation decisions with automation.”

McAfee has launched its global Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service, which will be delivered to customers through the cyber security's partnership with DXC Technology.

With access to the MDR service, DXC can provide its customers with proactive cyber threat detection and help resolve security incidents more rapidly. It will also provide services such as threat hunting and security forensics and investigation.

"We recognized that while MVISION EDR enables security teams to act faster and with higher precision than was previously possible, it was important to find a partner that could help deliver a fully managed threat detection and response service for organizations that needed it," said McAfee vice-president and chief product officer Ash Kulkarni.

"DXC was selected due to their proven security expertise in threat hunting and forensic investigation, as well as their deep knowledge of endpoint security. We are excited to see our partnership expand into new areas of growth that support these vital customer needs."

The announcement follows McAfee's partnership with Google to provide a new endpoint security management service for Google Cloud.

McAfee and DXC will be joining the competitive market of MDR services, in which businesses such as Cisco, Trend Micro and IBM. However, senior vice-president and general manager of DXC's security business Mark Hughes argues that "threats continue to grow and become more sophisticated", heightening the demand for MDR services.

"It's important to understand that not all organizations have the time nor resources to manage a modern security operations center," said Hughes. "With MVISION EDR, MVISION ePO and McAfee Advanced Threat Defense, we will be able to deliver a leading managed Endpoint Security solution that will benefit from cloud-based analytics with automated AI-guided investigations for efficient triage and investigations, to enable faster response times."

Along with its MDR launch, McAfee also announced that it is acquiring the browser-centric Light Point Security. The news comes after Chris Young stepped down from his role of McAfee's CEO and was succeeded by former BMC Software leader Peter Leav.

Selling IT security solutions to clients can be challenging. Many non-technical people think security means antivirus and little else. Those who have never been the victims of a security breach, particularly in small and medium businesses, can sometimes assume that the potential risks are being overstated.

But with 85% of MSPs reporting ransomware as the most common threat to SMBs, both the financial and the business implications of cyber security attacks cannot be underestimated.

MSPs should always be looking for ways to add additional value to their offerings and engagement with their customers. Security is one of the most commonly overlooked ways to add value, and ultimately is an exercise in risk management.

“Security” can’t simply be sold as a boxed product; instead an MSP should assume more risk from their end customers by taking on the responsibility for correctly managing an infrastructure, and therefore commanding higher profit.

Preparation can make the difference between a successful sale and a failed pitch, so here are some tips to ensure MSPs are fully prepared to make the best of opportunities with clients.

Take a layered security approach

Today’s threat landscape has never been more complex or sophisticated, with threats using multiple vectors to attack, from malicious email attachments to infected web adverts and convincing phishing sites.

The best way to truly keep your clients safe is with a layered security strategy that can secure users and their devices at every stage of an attack. The strategy uses multiple lines of defence against attacks, rather than relying on a firewall or antivirus solution alone, therefore making it much harder for criminals to compromise your client’s data.

No business is too small for proper security

In general, small and medium business networks are not complex, and it is straightforward to significantly enhance a customer’s security technology. Securing computers isn’t just about scanning for viruses any more. Instead, mature managed security services should offer a multi-layered approach, in which different security offerings complement each other.

Be ready to fully explain the risks should SMB owners assume that their business is too small for hackers to worry about.

Create powerful all-inclusive packages

Bundling services creates a far more powerful sales proposition than a single-function point solution. At a time when hundreds of thousands of records across the world are compromised in corporate environments every day, a packaged managed services offering can deliver extra value to a customer.

Reporting on these bundled services is also important. Customers need to know what services are included in their package, so a detailed contract and invoice are vital to showing value each month. Regular reporting also emphasises that the services are being delivered, proving the value of the product on an ongoing basis.

Stay up-to-date on current security trends

With 200,000 new strains of malware being discovered each day, antivirus technology alone is no longer enough and successful MSSPs will have other forms of protection to complement antivirus scanners.

Keeping knowledge of new security threats and being able to identify the methods needed to mitigate these risks will be hugely beneficial in reassuring the customer that they are in safe hands. Having complementary managed services such as email security, backup or web content filtering will enable flexibility when recommending which packages are most appropriate for customers based on up-to-date knowledge of security trends.

Infamous security and cryptocurrency magnate John McAfee may have finally been captured by US authorities, following his dramatic 'escape' from the country by boat.

Last night, McAfee's official Twitter account posted a thread claiming that he, his wife Janice and several other travelling companions had been "detained by authorities at their latest port of call". The tweets were ostensibly posted by Rob Loggia, the campaign manager for McAfee 2020 presidential bid, who said that he will be operating McAfee's Twitter account to provide updates on the situation.

"I last spoke with John as his boat was being boarded," one tweet read. "The situation was tense but controlled. Our conversation was cut short by authorities confiscating their phones."

In late January, McAfee announced (for the second time in as many years) that he was going on the run from US tax and financial enforcement authorities, taking to his so-called "Freedom Boat" with a large collection of alcohol and automatic weapons and embarking on a tour of countries like Cuba and the Bahamas. According to McAfee, he was being pursued by multiple government agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service and most recently, the CIA.

Loggia's tweet thread also references a contingency plan which McAfee has previously talked about. This supposedly involves caches of data left with a number of trusted individuals around the world, who are under instructions to release it to the public should McAfee disappear.

McAfee has a long and chequered history with law enforcement. He has, by his own admission, declined to pay any taxes or file tax returns for close to a decade and has claimed to be under government surveillance on multiple occasions. He was also notoriously implicated in the death of his neighbour Gregory Faull in Belize. A judge in the wrongful death suit brought by Faull's family ordered him to pay $25 million in damages this year, which McAfee has said he will not pay.

While McAfee has claimed to be fleeing US authorities, as of yet there has been no official confirmation that any law enforcement agencies have issued warrants against him.

John McAfee has been ordered to pay $25 million in damages over the killing of his ex-neighbour Gregory Faull in 2012.

The judgement was handed down by a US Federal District judge in Florida, based on a wrongful death lawsuit by Faull's daughter which claims that McAfee paid $5,000 to have Faull killed.

"John McAfee's depraved acts of plotting, financing, and directing Greg's murder reflect that he has absolutely no respect for life or law," Faull's family said in a statement. "Although Greg cannot be replaced, today we are comforted that John McAfee's evil acts have been officially condemned through the power of civil justice."

"The Faull family appreciates the hard work of their attorneys who pursued John McAfee for more than six years working diligently across the United States and in Belize. They further appreciate the cooperation of the Belize government and their police force. We continue to hope and urge the U.S. Department of Justice and the Belize government to pursue a criminal investigation against John McAfee for murder for hire and torture of our beloved Greg."

The suit marks the third amended complaint that McAfee has been served with; in all cases, he has failed to officially respond to the complaint or to make an appearance in court. In his absence, the court has ruled against McAfee, who has been instructed to pay Faull's estate $5 million in compensation for emotional distress, $20 million in damages and around $8,400 in funeral costs.

McAfee responded to the judgement via a statement on Twitter, announcing that he has no intention of paying the damages, on the basis that he has no funds with which to do so.

"I have no assets, so it is truly a mute [sic] point," the statement read.

McAfee also highlighted the high number of lawsuits that have been brought against him in the past, indicating that he considered many of them to be frivolous. One of these was the lawsuit brought against him after the death of his 22-year-old nephew Joel Gordon Bitow and another man, Robert Gilson, in an aircraft crash in 2006.

Bitow was a flight instructor at one of McAfee's previous business ventures, an 'aerotrekking' firm that involved flying small aircraft short distances between remote airstrips over low altitudes. Bitow was operating as a flight instructor despite only holding a sport pilot certificate, rather than a full pilot's license - an act that is illegal in the US.

Gilson's family also filed a wrongful death suit after the crash, which resulted in McAfee being ordered to pay $2.5 million in damages back in 2014. McAfee has never paid.

Ignoring lawsuits and refusing to pay the resulting judgements has become a pattern for McAfee, and one that he appears proud of, saying "I refuse to play the legal extortion game aimed at America's wealthy class".

The death of Faull is one of McAfee's more notorious episodes, and occurred while he was living in Ambergris Quay in Belize, in a compound surrounded by guards armed with automatic weapons and a number of dogs.

Faull, who was one of McAfee's neighbours in Ambergris Quay, was attacked "at least once" by McAfee's dogs, according to the suit, and complained about them to both McAfee himself and the local Belizean authorities. Jeffrey Spiegel, one of Faull's friends and neighbours, testified that when no action was taken to bring the dogs under control, Faull "took matters into his own hands" and poisoned the animals.

The lawsuit claims that upon discovering this, McAfee became "irate", put the dogs down (with multiple gunshots) and began "parading up and down the beach, screaming". It alleges that following this incident, McAfee arranged for the payment of $5,000 to "violent" local man Eddie McKoy to "subdue, torture, and murder" Faull. Faull was discovered in his home with taser burns on his torso and genitals, and a single gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Spiegel testified that he, along with the rest of the residents of Ambergris Quay, "immediately concluded" that McAfee was behind the murder, but McAfee maintains his innocence, arguing that he was never suspected or charged with murder by the Belizean authorities, although his statement fails to mention that he went to extreme lengths to evade questioning, including fleeing to Guatemala and illegally crossing the border.

John McAfee founded security software company McAfee Associates in 1987, later known as simply McAfee, however, he retired from his work in 1994. He would eventually sell his remaining stake in the company and no longer has any association with the brand.

McAfee is currently running for president in the US 2020 elections. He is conducting his campaign 'in exile', on a boat that is stocked with large amounts of alcohol and automatic weapons. He claims that he is on the run from the US tax authority, who he says are pursuing him for financial crimes. He also regularly promotes various cryptocurrencies, claiming that they offer a way for people to seize control from the government. McAfee has previously been paid in excess of $100,000 per coin for his endorsements.

John McAfee has once again taken to Twitter to announce he is fleeing from the US government, claiming that he's being charged with "unspecified IRS crimes of a felonious nature".

The controversial cyber security pioneer posted a video on his Twitter account claiming that the IRS - the US government's tax enforcement division - has charged him, his wife, and several of his team with a number of crimes.

While McAfee said that the crimes were "unspecified", he is by his own admission a tax-avoider.

"I have not paid taxes for eight years," he said. "I've made no secret of it. I have not filed returns. Every year I tell the IRS... come and find me."

He claims that "it's not illegal".

McAfee says that he's being charged by the IRS, but other clues indicate that he may also be on the run from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In his tweet, McAfee said that he is "being charged with using Crypto Cuttencies [SIC] in criminal acts against the U. S. Government", and as the agency responsible for monitoring financial crime, any cryptocurrency-related crime would be the SEC's responsibility, rather than the IRS'.

It is not the first time that McAfee has had a run-in with the US white-collar crime watchdog. Indeed, the antivirus founder has had numerous run-ins with the agency over the years.

Most recently, he threatened to "rip [the SEC] a new asshole worthy of parking a tractor trailer in" after the agency ruled that promoting cryptocurrency ICOs without disclosing that you've been paid to do so constitutes fraud. McAfee regularly promoted so-called 'alt-coins' for a period last year, and it was later revealed that he was paid more than $100,000 per coin.

McAfee is a well-known figure in the crypto community and has been a big proponent of crypto currencies as an enabler of personal freedoms. As he explained in his video, he believes that the widespread use of cryptocurrencies will prevent governments from collecting income taxes, which will lead to conflict with the crypto community at large. "We are today at war," he said in his video.

McAfee attempted become president as part of the 2016 campaign, running as a candidate for the libertarian party. His campaign was characterised by bombastic quotes from McAfee, often focusing on his chequered past.

"I have no shame," he said; "yes, I've been in jail. I've taken drugs - more drugs than you in the audience can ever f*cking carry."

He has not abandoned his political ambition, and has previously announced his intention to run for president in 2020, once again as a libertarian candidate.

Going on the run has not fazed him either, and McAfee said that he plans to conduct his campaign "in exile".

Fleeing from the authorities is becoming something of a habit for McAfee. In May 2018, less than a year ago, he posted another video saying that he had "gone underground" in order to evade the SEC, which he claimed has too much power. He similarly made headlines in 2012 when he went on the run from authorities in Belize, who wanted to question him over the murder of his neighbour.

McAfee has confirmed his intention to remain on the lam. "I will not allow them to imprison me and shut my voice down," he said, "which they will do immediately. Why? Because I am a 'flight risk'."

"Obviously. I am in flight."

John McAfee has "gone underground" in an apparent bid to flee the US Securities and Exchanges Commission, claiming that the agency has too much power and implying that it even carries out covert assassinations.

"The SEC was never intended to have this power," said McAfee in a YouTube video, speaking from 'an armoured motorcade in an undisclosed location'.

"Please God, America, wake up and see what has happened. The SEC is in charge of our entire industry; our companies, our manufacturing, our distribution, our creativity, our entrepreneurship."

"The SEC owns America," he said, "and if you think that an agency of the US government would not stoop to assassination, kidnapping, threats, then what are you smoking?"

"The SEC is one of the most powerful agencies in the world," he said in a separate YouTube video. "It is out of hand, and it does not anymore represent American values or the American people."

In reports published by Rob Loggia (with whom McAfee works on various cryptocurrency projects), McAfee claimed the SEC sent agents to watch him at his secluded home in Tennessee, citing unusual traffic patterns and repeated visits from a small low-flying plane.

In order to fox his pursuers, McAfee has gone "on the run", and claims to have enacted an elaborate scheme in which he and his team hire body doubles, repeatedly change locations and swap electronics on a daily basis.

McAfee claims that the SEC - the agency which governs the US stock market and other financial markets - is out to get him over his support and promotion of cryptocurrencies, which he says have the power to make the SEC obsolete.

McAfee, the controversial founder of the cyber security company that bears his name, is perhaps best known for his colourful past. This is not his first time on the run; he was previously sought for questioning as a person of interest over the murder of one of his neighbours in Belize, and the prime minister of the country called him "paranoid [and] bonkers". He has also been accused of various crimes relating to firearms and intoxicants.

McAfee has become a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency world in recent years, setting up a consultancy firm, McAfee Crypto Team, to advise cryptocurrency firms on their ICOs. He also uses Twitter to promote various altcoins.

These lesser-known cryptocurrencies are supposedly coins that McAfee himself believes in and has invested in, although his promotion of some cryptocurrencies has led to accusations of the entrepreneur running pump-and-dump schemes - a form of financial fraud that is currently legal in the world of cryptocurrencies - something McAfee denies.

IT Pro has approached McAfee and the SEC for comment.

Eight new cyber threats were discovered every second at the end of 2017, almost twice the rate of the previous quarter, according to new figures.

An average of almost 500 new threats were discovered every minute in Q4 last year, McAfee Labs' quarterly Threats Report revealed yesterday, with huge spikes in cryptocurrency attacks, Mac malware and attacks against healthcare.

"Our research reveals a 211% surge in disclosed security incidents against the healthcare industry last quarter," said Nigel Hawthorn, McAfee's data privacy expert for cloud security.

"Healthcare organisations are a valuable target for cybercriminals who have set aside ethics in favour of profits, as they hold some very valuable personal data. Many incidents were caused by organisational failure to comply with security best practice or address known vulnerabilities in medical software."

Malware designed specifically for macOS devices also saw big growth, with a 24% increase in the number of new Mac malware samples detected over the course of Q4. McAfee saw a total increase in Mac malware of 243% over the course of last year, a figure which tallies with similar reports from Malwarebytes earlier this week.

Another commonly-identified trend highlighted by the report's findings was the shift in cyber crime tactics to target Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The market's massive spike in value has driven an increasing number of criminals to cryptocurrency-based attacks, such as hacks on wallet platforms and malware that uses victims' compute power to mine currencies like Monero and others.

"By going digital along with so many other things in our world, crime has become easier to execute, less risky and more lucrative than ever before," said McAfee CTO Steve Grobman. "It should be no surprise to see criminals focusing on stealthy fileless PowerShell attacks, low risk routes to cash through cryptocurrency mining, and attacks on soft targets such as hospitals."

McAfee has completed the acquisition of Skyhigh Networks, which will now be integrated into the McAfee Cloud Security Business Unit, offering extensive expertise on cloud-based threat management.

The company explained buying the cloud security business means it can take advantage of the cloud access security broker (CASB) market, pioneered by Skyhigh Networks to offer customers a multi-cloud protection solution. The offering covers visibility into networks, workloads and data, advanced threat protection and pervasive data protection to ensure businesses are covered across the entire cloud, whatever services and providers they're using.

"Today's announcement marks a new milestone for the future of our company," said Chris Young, CEO of McAfee. "With two industry leaders coming together under one company, we will make cybersecurity an enabler to the transformative power of our digital age. We are focused on securing customers from their devices to the cloud, giving customers access to market-leading capabilities in the architectural control points that matter most."

McAfee explained the customer base for such a solution is huge. According to its 2017 cloud adoption and security report, 93% of businesses use at least one cloud service and offering the combined expertise of McAfee and Skyhigh Networks mean customers can take advantage of the full suite of services including Skyhigh Security Cloud, McAfee Cloud Workload Security and McAfee Virtual Network Security Platform.

"McAfee's acquisition of Skyhigh Networks brings two security leaders together," said Ivaylo Uzunov, manager of information security at Carlson Wagonlit Travel. "The integration of their security offerings will provide a holistic data visibility and control for cloud applications, while preserving policy enforcement and compliance."

McAfee will acquire cloud security company Skyhigh Networks, the company has announced, expanding out its portfolio beyond traditional endpoint protection.

Skyhigh specialises in cloud security, providing protection for IaaS, PaaS and SaaS services, and boasts over 30% of the Fortune 100 as customers. The acquisition news comes less than eight months after McAfee was spun off from previous owner Intel to become a standalone company once more, following a $7.6 billion acquisition deal in 2010.

"Skyhigh Networks had the foresight five years ago to realize that cyber security for cloud environments could not be an impediment to, or afterthought of, cloud adoption," said McAfee CEO Chris Young. "They pioneered an entirely new product category called cloud access security broker (CASB) that analysts describe as one of the fastest growing areas of information security investments of the last five years - where Skyhigh continues to innovate and lead."

"Skyhigh's leadership in cloud security, combined with McAfee's security portfolio strength, will set the company apart in helping organisations operate freely and securely to reach their full potential."

In an open letter to the company's stakeholders and customers, Skyhigh CEO Rajiv Gupta offered reassurances that the company's product portfolio will remain unaffected, aside from "more resources and acceleration in product innovation". Following the acquisition, Gupta will take a position on McAfee's leadership team, running the cloud security business unit.

"Becoming part of McAfee is the ideal next step in realizing Skyhigh Networks' vision of not simply making the cloud secure, but making it the most secure environment for business," Gupta said.

"McAfee will provide global scale to further accelerate Skyhigh's growth, with the combined company providing leading technologies and solutions across cloud and endpoint security - categories Skyhigh and McAfee respectively helped create, and the two architectural control points for enterprise security."

It's been a big year in the security world. Between WannaCry, Petya and the rest, the dangers posed by cyber criminals have started to hit home in a way we haven't really seen before.

At MPOWER, McAfee has looked into this and more and, in my opinion, presented a coherent view of what the future of the security landscape looks like not just for the company but more globally.

The key themes can be summarised thus: Attackers are not stupid and in many cases have a high level of resources at their disposal perhaps even more than a nation state. Attacks and attack methods will get ever more sophisticated, such as ransomware being used as a decoy rather than the main attack. In order to stand a chance of beating or getting ahead of them, security vendors need to completely change tactics, or otherwise we're stuck in a "Red Queen race" situation running ever faster and exhausting ourselves, but getting nowhere.

This is all true and interesting, but if you're in the security industry they're not really novel ideas.

What was refreshing about MPOWER, however, was the emphasis on communicating these risks and trends to businesses, within businesses and to the wider community without resorting to FUD - sowing fear, uncertainty and doubt.

This has been indeed, still is the security industry's stock in trade. The opening to this year's RSA conference was a shining example of this (I'm not going to regale you with the full details, but it involved pictures of war zones and apocalyptic soliloquies).

What has turned McAfee off this approach? It's hard to say - perhaps reality is scary enough nowadays - but it's nice to have someone lay out the challenges and possible solutions in a measured, rather than melodramatic, way.

The other key theme has been the importance of partnerships, encompassed by the event's "Together is Power" tagline. In practice this means multiple things -- humans and machines working together, breaking down silos within businesses and, of course, its own Security Innovation Alliance.

It's hard to deny the importance of collaboration when it comes to security, though - all the biggest take downs and raids have been thanks to various vendors and law enforcement agencies working together.

All in all, it has been an enlightening and informative week, with McAfee cementing its new identity. Let's hope we can continue to have more rational discussions about security outside of conference centres in Las Vegas too.

Main image credit: McAfee

Disciplines such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are playing increasingly important role in cyber security, but not at the expense of human intellect.

This is one of the key messages from the first day of McAfee MPOWER, the company's annual security conference in Las Vegas.

Indeed, one of the company's two new product launches, Investigator, has this complementary approach of human and machine at its very heart.

Speaking during a press panel on "human machine teaming", McAfee CTO Steve Grobman explained why in cyber security the human element remains so vital, whereas advanced analytics and AI is replacing humans in other disciplines.

"I think cyber security is a fundamentally different field to many other areas where artificial intelligence, machine learning is being used, Grobman said. "The example I like to give is weather forecasting [because] as we get better at forecasting weather, the laws of physics don't get upset and decide to change the way water evaporates. As we get better over time at forecasting where hurricanes are going to land, we make continuous progress.

"What makes cyber security such a different field than almost everything else in natural science that's using these same technologies is there's an adversary applying game theory on the other side of the table that's going to change the game. What machines are not good at is recognising human intellect you really need humans to understand human intellect."

Celeste Fralick, chief data scientist at McAfee, said the important thing is to use both AI and human resources rationally and where they can be of greatest value.

"We're dealing with humans and we have to act like humans back," she explained. "But at scale, you don't have an opportunity to do that logically with that amount of data [coming in] so you're going to have to do something different."

Machines, she said, should be used for tasks like summarising data, identifying patterns and making predictions, while humans should do more creative thinking at a human level, such as what the adversary may be doing. Based on that and the information provided by the data science capabilities, humans should then be the ones to decide what level of intervention is required and plan out next steps.

"Cyber security far outweighs [other disciplines in] the variety of data and the amount of data that's coming in because [cyber-attacks are] human driven [and] machine driven," Fralick explained. That pairing, she said, has to be reflected in how cyber security vendors respond to the threat.

Main image credit: Bigstock

McAfee's annual Mpower cyber security conference kicks off in Las Vegas this week, but there's been something of a revamp compared to recent years.

For a start, the name has changed, as it was formerly known as Intel Security Focus. Following McAfee splitting from Intel in April this year, the company is clearly trying to reestablish itself as an independent entity.

In this respect, I expect Mpower to be somewhat like the first Dell EMC World or HPE Discover, in sentiment, rather than content. Just like them, McAfee is an established brand that's been forged into a new company and is trying to get its new identity across to customers, partners and other potential 'stakeholders'.

In terms of content, that's a little harder to say. Plenty of security knowledge, of course, but that's a broad church and with the WPA2 vulnerability news revealed today, there are almost certainly some keynote speakers holding their head in their hands and weeping, or furiously rewriting their scripts. Or both.

Other topics that are likely to come up include the security or otherwise of the Internet of Things (IoT), the future of privacy and security in the face of government demands to break encryption, and securing businesses in an ever more connected world with an increasingly flexible workforce.

I also anticipate discussions on cloud security and the role of the channel in helping businesses protect their most important assets.

The event kicks off on Wednesday 18 October and I'll be on the ground reporting. Make sure to follow me on Twitter for live tweets from the event and click here for all the latest news and analysis as it comes in.

Main image credit: McAfee

Intel and John McAfee have settled a lawsuit and counter lawsuit over the rights to use McAfee's name.

The creator of the popular antivirus software confirmed that both sides have reached an agreement, according to a Reuters report. US District Judge Paul Oetken in New York dismissed McAfee's September 2016 lawsuit and a countersuit by Intel, just five days after an agreement between the two parties was signed.

McAfee sued Intel after it warned him that using his own name for his digital gaming and cybersecurity company would infringe its trademarks. McAfee wanted to rename MGT Capital Investments as John McAfee Global Technologies. Intel then accused McAfee of trademark infringement and unfair competition, seeking unspecified damages.

The settlement now means that McAfee cannot use his name, trademark his name or the phrase John McAfee Privacy Phone or use John McAfee Global Technologies in relation to security-related products and services.

But McAfee can use his name in advertising, promotions and presentations. This includes his role in founding McAfee Associates, a company he sold to Intel for $7.7 billion in 2010. Intel spun off its IT security division, now called McAfee LLC, selling a 51% share to private investment company TPG Capital. The spin-off is valued at $4.2 billion and Intel retained a minority stake.

Neither party admitted wrongdoing in the settlement agreement, which court papers said was "amicable".

A spokesman for Intel said the firm was pleased to settle the matter.

Intel has sold part of its stake in McAfee (formerly known as Intel Security) and now jointly owns the firm with private equity investment company TPG Capital.

TPG acquired a 51% stake of McAfee at a valuation of $4.2 billion, while Intel now owns the other 49%. The deal was announced in September and closed today meaning McAfee is now an independent firm once again and will go under that moniker rather than being called Intel Security as it was dubbed under the chip firm's sole ownership.

McAfee's CEO Chris Young, who has led the security arm since October 2014, confirmed the company has rebranded to help smooth the transition. Young declared that "As an independent company we have the freedom, the power, and the responsibility to innovate as never before" and that it's "the right move at the right time."

Young says the firm will now be able to focus more attention on cyber security and help organisations deal with the new and emerging threats in the digital world. As part of the spin-off, McAfee has unveiled a new strategic vision, which is comprised of three pillars: 1) innovation 2) trust and 3) collaboration.

Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO, added that his firm would continue to support McAfee in its new guise as it worked to establish itself "as one of the largest pure-play cyber security companies in the industry."

"Security remains important to Intel, and in addition to our equity position and ongoing collaboration with McAfee, Intel will continue to integrate industry-leading security and privacy capabilities in our products from the cloud to billions of smart, connected computing devices." he added.

Last June, rival Symantec acquired web security firm Blue Coat for $4.65 million. It remains to be seen whether McAfee will follow a similar path and make further cyber security startup acquisitions to add to bolster its portfolio.

Intel acquired McAfee in 2010 for approximately $7.68 billion and rebranded it as "Intel Security" before announcing it was to be sold in September 2016. The company has opted to keep the name of its founder John McAfee, who is set to be played by Johnny Depp in an upcoming biopic based on his time hiding out in Belize.

Hollywood icon Johnny Depp is set to play tech industry legend John McAfee in an upcoming biopic based on his time hiding out in Belize, reports indicate.

According to Deadline, the Pirates Of The Caribbean Star will play McAfee "as he takes a... magazine writer on a darkly comic Apocalypse Now-like tour at his Belize compound, a trip filled with paranoia, machine guns, sex and murder".

Details are sketchy at present, but the film - that allegedly has the working title 'King Of The Jungle' - will apparently be based on the notorious episode in which the tech mogul and one-time presidential candidate went on the run from Belizean police in an unbelievable incident involving meth labs, alleged police frame-ups and the murder of McAfee's neighbour.

The story of John McAfee is well-known in the tech world. After selling his cyber security company for a princely sum, he moved to Belize in 2008.

There he was accused by the government of manufacturing narcotics and owning unlicenced firearms, and he allegedly surrounded himself with gang members. When his neighbour turned up with a bullet wound to the back of the head, McAfee went on the run, saying he believed the bullet was meant for him and that the authorities saw him as a murder suspect.

The authorities say they only wanted him for questioning, while McAfee told Wired that he was convinced they were out to "silence" him. Eventually, his location was given away by the Vice journalists that were travelling with him; metadata embedded in a photo they posted to social media revealed that he had fled to Guatemala - he was eventually sent back to the US.

The project is being helmed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who also directed Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, I Love You Phillip Morris and Focus. The script comes from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who were behind Man On The Moon, Ed Wood and The People vs Larry Flynt.

The creative team behind the film have considerable experience producing biopics, and their previous work suggests they will not shy away from the more controversial aspects of the John McAfee legend.

While McAfee has previously called out inaccurate reports about him, after a company mistakenly claimed he was their chief security officer - he retweeted stories about the movie, suggesting it is a film that is in the works.

In a Business Insider opinion piece, McAfee wrote last May: "My most prominent act of civil disobedience occurred in Belize, when I refused to be extorted by the government. This led to a series of events that to this day, no fictional movie has matched." Now that movie might finally be made.

Picture credit: Bigstock

Entrepreneur John McAfee has denied that he has been appointed as the security chief of a blockchain startup, after it named him chief security officer in a press release.

Toronto-based internet security firm Equibit announced yesterday that it had hired industry legend McAfee as CSO. But since that press release, McAfee has taken to Twitter to deny having any involvement with Equibit other than an as an advisor to the board of directors.

"Like many companies who ask for my advice, I give it freely," said McAfee, speaking to MobileSyrup. "Equibit wanted a more formal arrangement where they could call me from time to time for advice - the same as I do for everyone."

"They asked if they could title me chief security officer. I told them they could title me 'King' as far as I was concerned. At no time did they offer me money nor at any time did I ask for any money," added McAfee.

Equibit provides security for the safe transaction of shares, prevention of trade hacking, and handling of shareholder services through its de-centralised blockchain technology.

The security firm first announced the apparent appointment in a press release picked up by titles including Venture Beat. At the time, CEO Chris Horlacher said: "We're honoured and thrilled to be working with John McAfee. With his input and ongoing guidance, EDC will continue to set the security standard for blockchain services."

Fortune reported McAfee's press release statement as reading: "Equibit Development Corporation has positioned itself to become a major player in the blockchain development field focused on the financial sector. With my guidance and advice, I anticipate the company to experience stellar growth and achievements."

However, Horlacher has since stated that McAfee's role will be one of an "internal auditor", and will conduct "regular penetration testing of our software and infrastructure".

The story has since been widely reported across major news outlets, drawing the ire of both McAfee and his wife Janice.

"I'm a full-time CEO, how can I possibly spend months full-time doing PEN testing for a company? That's absurd. That's totally absurd," added McAfee, whose chief exec position is with the John McAfee Global Technologies investment fund.

McAfee told MobileSyrup that he already has identical advisor arrangements with 31 other companies across the globe.

IT Pro has approached EDC for clarification about its relationship with McAfee but has yet to receive a reply.

McAfee made his mark on the industry with the launch of McAfee and Associates in 1987, which was later sold to Intel for $7.68 billion. Rebranded Intel Security, its current owner is about to spin it off in a $4.2 billion private equity deal.

McAfee has since dabbled with a number of startups, but famously fled Belize in 2012 after he was cited as a person of interest in connection with the murder of a neighbour, although no charges were ever brought against him.

Recently McAfee made an unsuccessful move into US politics, losing a leadership election of the Libertarian Party to Gary Johnson.

Picture credit: NullSession on Flickr

Intel is planning to spin off its security business just five years after the chipmaker acquired McAfee, according to reports.

Citing unnamed "people close to the discussions", The Financial Times said Intel has been in discussions with bankers about selling off its cyber security business "in a deal that would be one of the largest in the sector".

Intel bought cyber security firm McAfee in 2010 for $7.7 billion, with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announcing in 2014 that the division would be renamed Intel Security. It was initially intended that the McAfee security functionality would be embedded into Intel's chips, however, this plan has, to date, failed to materialise.

The Financial Times also pointed out that any sale would take place against the backdrop of a major restructuring exercise Intel has undertaken to refocus its business on selling chips for cloud computing, having been hit by the declining PC market, on which it is still heavily dependent. This includes the planned loss of 12,000 jobs announced this year

It is claimed that the preferred selling price for Intel Security would be at least the $7.7 billion it paid initially, if not more. Should it succeed, Intel will come off much better than Dell did recently when it sold its whole software division for a rumoured $2 billion - less than it paid for many of its constituent parts, including Quest Software.

Intel has declined to comment on the matter.

Wearables, smartphones and tablets are facing an ever increasing barrage of security threats, according to Intel Security's annual Mobile Threat Report.

Intel identified several vectors of attack that have moved from the desktop to the mobile world, including bank fraud, ransomware and remote access tools (RATs), which are all on the rise, according to the report.

It also found a marked difference in the way iOS and Android are each targeted via their app stores. While the biggest threat to iOS devices was from apps with "overly aggressive" adware, Android is still largely the victim of malicious apps.

The report also pointed out that, for Android users, it can be difficult to follow the mantra of updating to the latest version of an OS as soon as it is released, because each handset vendor rolls out updates on their own time schedule.

However, Intel did say that both Apple and Google are quick to remove malicious apps from their respective app stores once identified.

It is not just malware that has evolved from PCs that is now targeting mobile device users, however. More traditional SMS phishing scams continue to persist, directing users to crafted web pages that can encourage users to enter personal information, allowing cyber criminals to steal this data or infect it with malware.

The report also highlights the new attack surfaces presented by the Internet of Things (IoT), which include wearables and domestic devices like smart TVs and fridges.

From the perspective of wearables, cyber criminals could potentially use these as a gateway to access smartphones, while TVs with built-in microphones and cameras could have these features accessed remotely by hackers, allowing them to spy on the devices' owners.

Raj Samani, EMEA CTO of Intel Security, told IT Pro: "We're not trying to scare people, we're trying to make them aware that it is serious."

Individuals should be doing their own "due diligence" when buying devices and asking what security measures are in place, said Samani. He added, though, that there is "no excuse for companies to do nothing" anymore.

McAfee Labs has revealed the biggest threats to security this year and into next, claiming mobile banking apps, macro and fileless malware are most prevalent.

The company released the information in its newly-released November 2015 Threats Report, which identified the biggest threats to security in the third quarter of 2015.

"The cyber threat landscape often combines something old, something new, something blundered, and something you'," Vincent Weafer, vice president of Intel Security's McAfee Labs, said in a blog post. "The third quarter provides examples of old threats repackaged with social engineering, new fileless malware replacing rootkits, mobile app coding blunders, and the exploit of the weakest link in any ecosystem: you the user."

Researchers at the lab explored mobile threats, saying poor mobile app practices, such as disregarding back-end service provider guidance, means user data is exposed to services in the cloud. Mobile banking apps are particularly targeted here, which is even more concerning considering the sensitivity of the data such apps generate.

"A two-month analysis of nearly 300,000 mobile apps led McAfee Labs to the discovery of two mobile banking Trojans responsible for taking advantage of thousands of mobile banking accounts across Eastern Europe," Weafer explained.

"Known to the industry as 'Android/OpFake' and 'Android/Marry', the two malware strains were designed to take advantage of poor mobile app coding connecting mobile apps to back-end service providers managing app data."

McAfee's report also revealed macro malware has reached a six-year high, with incidents increasing four-fold in comparison to last year. The reason such threats have risen is because spearphishing campaigns are becoming more sophisticated, targeting enterprise users and encouraging them to download attachments containing such vulnerabilities.

Fileless malware should be a priority for IT managers to tackle. McAfee Labs said it captured 74,471 samples of fileless attacks in the first three quarters of 2015

Additional threats exposed in McAfee's report relate to mobile malware, which increase by 16 per cent over the last quarter, Mac OS malware, which quadrupled over the period and ransomware, which grew 18 per cent.

The good news is that rootkit-related attacks waned in popularity, dropping 65 per cent, while malicious signed binaries also declined.

McAfee has announced its top partners are growing at three times that of the security market.

Speaking at its EMEA Partner Summit, McAfee said that its largest partners grew 23 percent over the last year; approximately triple the six to eight percent growth rate of the global security market.

“We had great momentum last year, it was a great year for our portfolio,” says Gavin Struthers, SVP of McAfee’s worldwide channel.

“If you look at our top 20 partners with a base of at least a million dollars and growing above 20 percent, 73 percent growth is just phenomenal; I’ve never seen this type of success in the 12 years that I’ve been in the company.

He adds: “If partners double down with McAfee, and especially for the named partner community, we declare they will grow above market and grow double digit and the data supported that last year.”

The adoption of the company’s partner programme was also shown to have grown in the last year, surpassing $3m in McAfee rewards payout and showing double digit commercial and new business growth. The 2012-2013 EMEA figures showed a 63 percent increase in the number of opportunities registered, a 110 percent increase of the number of actual orders placed against deals registered and a 153 percent total bookings increase.

Partner Summit

The Partner Summit, which ran last week in sunny Marbella, was attended by the company’s regional VPs and by 140 partners from more than 30 countries, in a mix of retail and distribution. It touched not only on McAfee’s channel strategy but also on the broader security market challenges such as BYOD, shadow IT and security as a boardroom concern.

McAfee said it has focused on simplifying its security portfolio and on achieving growth while reducing its partner numbers. Though now part of Intel, it runs its own partner programme while sharing some partners with its parent company and collaborating tightly on the distribution front.

“Instead of going really broad, we go deep and offer a broader portfolio. We think our success over the last couple of years is coming from that strategy,” says president of EMEA, Gert-Jan Schenk, who acknowledges that this approach over the last four years may be perceived as a little different. “We believe the effectiveness of security improves as the relationship and intimacy between a vendor and supplier tightens.”

Any rumblings that Intel may be dropping the McAfee brand this year were swiftly denied by the McAfee team in Marbella, who described the speculation as ‘hasty’ or as stemming from a lack of branding clarity. While signage, portal and business card branding is likely to change this year, the red shield will still be prominent, it says.

Indeed, Schenk describes Intel Security as a dedicated business unit for security, under which McAfee remains both as a fully-branded subsidiary and as a proactive collaborator on joint Intel Security solutions.

The exec also notes that Intel invested in security because it’s the enabler of the next wave of computing. “The word of cybercrime is so intense that I think it was the right decision for Intel,” he comments.

Managed services

David Small, McAfee VP of channel in EMEA, says he looks upon the firm’s 2013 achievements, including demand generation kits, co-branding programmes and quicker deal registration, with some satisfaction. “Our next goals involve teaming plans between McAfee and a partner around a specific customer or project, as well as a push into managed services,” he says.

Embracing managed services is also a priority for McAfee. The company has no ambition to create its own managed service, but it’s looking for partners to step-up to the plate. A SaaS-based offering has been available to partners for some time and in February the company launched a pay-as-you-go hardware model, which has received good feedback from partners.

“In the UK, we’ve seen demand for managed security services and have seen that shift in the market from on-premise into the cloud,” comments Spencer Starkey, UK & Ireland regional channel director. “Our partners are good at executing on-premise but not as strong on managed security. Educating our partners and having a deeper discussion with them is key.”

Starkey says it’s about more than just launching the programme, as McAfee needs the partners to support it. “The partners have to have some understanding and willingness to deliver this. We’ve had a lot of interest from partners that are not in the security business but have the datacentre and deliver things like ERP solutions.”

Overall, Struthers sees security as a necessary and massive opportunity for McAfee partners. “By 2020 there will be 200bn IP addressable devices on the compute fabric. That equates to 27 devices per person in the world and the ability to protect that will be very important.”

A 3 million grant has been awarded to several UK universities to fund research to help clamp down on cyber criminals who prey on smartphone users via malicious apps.

The money has been awarded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), which funds research and postgraduate training in engineering and physical sciences at universities across the UK.

The 3 million sum has been split between two app research teams. The first is from Royal Holloway University of London, while the second features the combined efforts of academics from City University London, and Coventry and Swansea universities.

A portion has also been awarded to three further research teams whose work focuses on shoring up the UK's cyber defences.

Reports about malicious smartphone apps that leak data or dial-up premium phone lines without the user's knowledge regularly do the rounds, and can prove hugely lucrative for cyber criminals.

Dr Lorenzo Cavallaro, a lecturer in the information security group at Royal Holloway, said his research team will be examining the behaviour of Android apps to make it easier to spot malicious ones.

"You may think the phone in your pocket is safe, but think again. We're used to considering our phones as a trusted, private channel of communication, and suitable to receive authentication information to access specific online services," said Cavallaro.

"Unfortunately, this information can be leaked or abused by colluding malware if the mobile device is infected."

The issue of colluding apps, whereby one app accesses a user's personal data before passing it on to a second one that can transmit the information over a network, is a growing threat to smartphone users.

Professor Tom Chen, research team leader at City University London, Swansea and Coventry universities, explained: "Currently almost all academic and industry efforts are focusing on single malicious apps; almost no attention has been given to colluding apps.

"Existing antivirus products are not designed to detect collusion," Chen added.

Both teams are being assisted by antivirus software vendor McAfee, who will provide researchers with access to a library of safe apps to assist in their efforts to analyse mobile malware.

Dr. Igor Muttik, a senior principal architect at Intel-owned McAfee, said the researcher's work should help ensure users remain one step ahead of cyber criminals.

"We're up against really sophisticated malware some even used by nation states for spying. All attackers are well aware of the technology involved in detecting and tracking them," said Muttik.

"These cyber criminals often take an industrial approach to malware; they try to maximise their benefits from it. So, we need to constantly raise the bar by improving the technology and this will make it more complex and less profitable for them to operate."

McAfee has expanded its Managed Service Provider (MSP) programme http://www.mcafee.com/msp to aid partners meet the requirement of customers seeking to adopt security as a Managed Service.

With managed and hosted service deployments expected to increase by 35 percent within the next two years according to InfoTech Research Group, channel partners that provide Managed Security Services play a vital role in managing customer’s security environments.

“Security deployment models are shifting and the demand for Managed Services deployments amongst enterprises continue to expand for all types of security technologies,” says Gavin Struthers, senior vice president of worldwide channels at McAfee.

Recognising the shift, McAfee is positioning its channel partners to take advantage of this change by offering its appliances to MSPs with a pay-as-you-go model. The MSP programme will also contain access to McAfee Next Generation Firewall, McAfee Enterprise Security Manager, McAfee Network Security Platform and McAfee Advanced Threat Defence. The company also announced its portfolio of authentication solutions will now be available through its MSP programme.

“The introduction of these technologies to our MSP programme will allow our partners to expand their portfolio and differentiate themselves while generating additional revenue opportunities,” Struthers concludes.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced last month at CES in Las Vegas that the vendor is to drop the McAfee brand name in favour of Intel Security.

Intel has confirmed the McAfee name will be consigned to the history books, as the chipmaker seeks to bring all its security products under one brand.

The firm's product are set to be re-branded as Intel Security, as new versions of its anti-virus products are brought to market.

The move was announced by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich during his keynote address at CES in Las Vegas yesterday, and comes nearly three-and-a-half years after Intel acquired McAfee for $7.7 billion.

In a statement, Krzanich said the rebrand will help bring some simplicity to the complex world of information security.

"The complexity of keeping digital identities safe grows as mobile applications and devices become a more important part of our daily lives," he said.

"Intel's intent is to intensify our efforts dedicated to making the digital world more secure, and staying ahead of threats to private information on mobile and wearable devices."

Furthermore, Krzanich confirmed plans to offer "elements" of McAfee's mobile security products for free, with further details on this expected in due course.

The announcement has led some industry watchers to question if Intel's change in branding strategy has been prompted by the erratic behaviour of John McAfee, who founded the company in the late 1980s before resigning in 1994.

Graham Cluley, an independent information security expert, also pointed out that McAfee has been rebranded before, albeit unsuccessfully.

"Back in the late 1990s, when McAfee Associates acquired Network General, the firm was rebranded NAI (Network Associates International), but the rebrand was a failure, and after a few years they reverted to the McAfee name," he told IT Pro.

"Will the new name have more success? I'm not sure. I think for the typical man in the street, McAfee is one of the first names that springs to mind when they think of anti-virus - so it's unlikely to help them with consumer mindshare at the very least."

This was a point echoed by Bob Tarzey, analyst and director at market watcher Quocirca, who told IT Pro killing off the McAfee brand could make the products a harder sell in the long run.

"The danger for Intel is that the McAfee product set becomes more closely association with Intel hardware and this will make it harder to market in non-Intel environments that could see it lose out in, for example, the growing mobile device security market," Tarzey said.

"Perhaps Intel is not bothered about that, being more concerned about underlining the security of its core products than being seen as a security generalist."

McAfee has signed a five-year partnership with the Bletchley Park Trust to help preserve the World War Two heritage site.

The Trust looks after the estate in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, where the codebreaker Alan Turing and his team cracked the German Enigma code, and the first UK signals intelligence centre was established, both of which greatly boosted the Allied war effort.

The site is currently undergoing an 8 million restoration funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and, once completed, hopes to attract 250,000 visitors a year, as well as providing school visit facilities for more than 16,000 pupils annually.

The first phase of the restoration is due to be completed in time for the 70th anniversary of D-Day in June 2014.

McAfee's involvement will see the anti-virus software company sponsor an international Cyber Security Exhibition and Computer Learning Zone, which will be located in a block of Bletchly Park that, until the restoration started, had been derelict for decades.

Gert-Jan Schenk, president of EMEA at McAfee, said: "McAfee is immensely proud to be involved with the preservation and development of such a vital part of British and world history.

"Working with Bletchley Park allows us to make a real impact on the cyber security education of children. Helping to keep the next generation safe was a key driver for partnering with The Bletchley Park Trust, not to mention the chance to help commemorate the part Bletchley Park played in the birth of the information age."

Sir John Scarlett, chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust, added: "The Codebreakers at Bletchley Park during World War Two battled against the very real threat of invasion.

"Today, when we live so much of our lives online, it is vital to understand how best to remain safe in the digital world. Our strategic partnership with McAfee is a fitting tribute to the pioneering men and women who helped to shorten World War Two."

Public sector workers are concerned the Government's Digital by Default strategy is insecure, despite high awareness of cyber security risks.

These are the findings of new research carried out by Dods on behalf of security software vendor McAfee, which included responses from 815 civil servants.

Digital by Default is the Government's commitment to providing easy to use online services to all members of society, to encourage them to use the internet to pay bills and find out local government information, for example, rather than use phone or paper-based services.

Over 80 per cent of those surveyed work in Central Government and 60 per cent of overall respondents said cyber security is a top or high-level priority for the department they work in.

Despite this, 47 per cent believe little or no knowledge of cyber security is needed for their position.

McAfee suggests this "lack of ownership and accountability could have serious ramifications" particularly as cyber security is considered a tier one threat to national security, the same level as terrorism.

There is also an overall lack of confidence in current security provisions.

Under 30 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed adequate consideration is given to cyber security within the Government reform agenda.

A further 28 per cent of Central Government employees surveyed believe SMBs are vulnerable to cyber attack due to their involvement in the supply chain for the delivery of Government projects.

Furthermore, only 14 per cent said they feel G-Cloud gives adequate consideration to cyber security.

Graeme Stewart, director, UK public sector strategy at McAfee, said: "The results from this study are further proof that initiatives such as the Digital Government Security Forum (DGSF), designed to help counter specific cyber threats posed by digital service transformation by sharing best practice use cases across industry and wider public services, are needed.

"It's only with a coordinated and concerted set of efforts that UK Plc can remain safe and a place for digital business to flourish," Stewart added.

McAfee has warned that Near Field Communications (NFC) could allow mobile devices to become infected by touching other phones infected with malware.

The IT security firm said the technology has made smart devices, such as smartphones and tablets, more attractive to cybercriminals.

As a result, the company said it expects to see criminals abuse the tap-and-pay NFC technology used in mobile payment programs or "digital wallets" in "bump and infect" scams that use worms to propagate through proximity.

The distribution path can quickly spread malware through a group of people on a passenger-loaded train or at an amusement park, for example. When the newly-infected device is used to "tap and pay" for the next purchase, the scammer collects the details of the wallet account and secretly reuses these credentials to steal from the wallet.

Worm malware like this will spread by exploiting vulnerabilities on devices, warned McAfee, and could be used to "monetise the 11.8 per cent of malware families that already contain exploit behaviours."

The company cited figures from research firm IDC that show smart devices are surpassing PCs as the preferred way to access the internet. The number of people using PCs to go online will shrink by 15 million over the next four years, while mobile users are expected to increase by 91 million, according to IDC.

Luis Blando, vice president of mobile product development at McAfee, said, despite elevated consumer awareness of threats on mobile platforms, there is still a significant knowledge gap surrounding how and when devices become infected and the level of potential damage.

"Cybercriminals are exhibiting greater levels of determination and sophistication leading to more destructive, multi-faceted hacks that are harder to spot, and thus warrant a greater degree of security and vigilance," said Blando.

McAfee also warned that criminals are increasingly looking at ways to generate revenue from mobile devices.

During 2012, about 16 per cent of malware families detected by McAfee attempted to get devices to subscribe to premium SMS messages, and the company predicts we will see an increase in threats that will result in users only finding out they have bought premium apps when they check their bills.

Toshiba has launched a promotion to try and encourage business users to invest in Ultrabooks by offering a 12-month subscription to McAfee's Anti-Theft security service.

McAfee Anti-Theft 2.0 offers more features than the anti-virus suites that are typically packaged with Ultrabooks. The software aims to keep information secure as it allows files to be encrypted and devices to be tracked/locked if they are lost or stolen.

Toshiba devices have a reasonably strong foothold in the enterprise and the firm is one of the few to still include features such as an Ethernet jack on its uber-thin devices. The promotion is valid until 31 March 2012 and the models included are:

Satellite U840

Satellite U940

Satellite U840W

Satellite Z930/Z830

Portg Z930/Z830

Satellite U920t

It remains to be seen whether promotions like this will boost sales of Ultrabooks, which have been tepid since they were first introduced at the end of 2011. There are also no concrete figures stating exactly how many have been shipped.

Despite all the major OEMs releasing devices, the availability of cut-priced tablets such as the iPad have proved extremely popular within the enterprise.

The growing trend of BYOD has also been cited as one of the reasons why Ultrabooks have failed to take off, but Intel thinks there will be "significant demand" for the devices in 2013.

The cost of Ultrabooks is also expected to become more competitive to try and mitigate the cannibalisation from smartphones and tablets.

The European Commission has published two documents aimed at improving online security for citizens and businesses within the EU.

The new cybersecurity strategy, dubbed An Open, Safe and Secure Cyberspace', and the Proposed Directive of Network and Information Security (NIS) were both announced in Brussels by the Commission's vice president for the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes.

There is no true freedom without security, not when you are walking down the street and not when you are online

"We are all here because we recognise the internet is important: for our economy, for our values, and for human rights," said Kroes.

"We rely on the internet for ever more services...but the more we depend on it, the more we depend on it to be secure.

"And there is no true freedom without security, not when you are walking down the street and not when you are online," she added.

The strategy sets out five priority areas for online security. They include achieving cyber resilience, reducing cybercrime, developing a cyber defence policy and capabilities related to the Common Security and Defence Policy.

It also seeks to develop industrial and technological resources for cybersecurity, and establish a coherent international cyberspace policy for the EU.

The Commission said the proposed NIS directive is "a key component of the overall strategy and would require all member states, key internet enablers and critical infrastructure operators...to ensure a secure and trustworthy digital environment throughout the EU."

Intel and anti-virus firm McAfee issued a joint statement welcoming the move.

"These actions demonstrate the European Union's commitment and resolve to address these threats. Together with the recent creation of the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) in the Hague, today's proposals further pave the way for a strong and co-ordinated response against these 21st century threats," they said in a blog post.

The full text of both documents is available to download from the European Union website.

Security sftware tycoon John McAfee has arrived in Miami following deportation by Guatemalan authorities.

He touched down on American soil after being escorted to the airport in Guatemala City and placed on board an American Airlines flight.

According to media reports, the millionaire said he was "perfectly happy with the decision."

McAfee was detained a week ago following his escape from Belize. He is currently wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of a neighbour November 11.

The technology pioneer said that while in Guatemala he faked a heart attack in order to buy time so his attorney could file a series of appeals to prevent his deportation to Belize.

Up until his appearance in Guatemala, McAfee had spent several weeks on the run. The 67-year-old appeared in the Guatemalan capital last week to ask for asylum. During his time on the run, McAfee blogged (www.whoismcafee.com) about his experiences.

"I'm happy to be going home," McAfee said to reporters before departing from Guatemala City airport. "I've been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I've been in jail for seven days."

"I'm just going to hang in Miami for a while. I like Miami," McAfee told Reuters. "There is a great sushi place there and I really like sushi."

McAfee claims that if he agrees to questioning by the authorities in Belize, they will kill him. He accuses the authorities there of corruption.

However, Belize's Prime Minister Dean Barrow said the McAfee is "extremely paranoid, even bonkers."

Following making a fortune from anti-virus software which bears his name, McAfee has been funding start-ups as well as more eccentric pursuits such as flying small planes low over the desert as well as attempting to make antibiotics from plants in the jungle.

McAfee said he had no immediate plans following his arrival in Miami.

Anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, facing deportation from Guatemala to Belize to answer questions over the death of a neighbor, has bought himself some time with legal appeals, the Guatemalan government revealed on Sunday.

McAfee's lawyers have filed a request with a local court to grant him leave to stay in Guatemala until his legal appeals against deportation have been settled, which could take months.

"The government of Guatemala respects the courts and we have to wait for them to make a decision," said Francisco Cuevas, a spokesman for the Guatemalan government.

The government initially said it would deport him straight away after rejecting McAfee's request for asylum on Thursday.

The Guatemalan government respects the courts and we must wait for them to make a decision.

Guatemala has been holding the former Silicon Valley millionaire since he was arrested on Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

Officials in Belize want to question McAfee as a "person of interest" in the killing of fellow American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

The court has up to 30 days to rule on his request, but McAfee's lawyers said on Sunday they expect a ruling in the American's favor as early as today.

"We are filing a series of papers with the court to attempt to keep me here long enough for the world to see the injustice of sending me back to Belize," McAfee said in an online news conference on Sunday evening.

McAfee has been evading Belizean officials for nearly a month, saying he fears they want to kill him, and that he is being persecuted for speaking out about corruption in the country's ruling party. Belize's prime minister has rejected McAfee's claims, calling him paranoid and "bonkers."

McAfee's attorney, Telesforo Guerra, said that if his request with the court is successful, McAfee would be allowed to stay in the country until the legal suits have been resolved.

His lawyers have filed several injunctions against government officials, alleging McAfee's rights were violated because his asylum request was not given proper consideration.

McAfee said on Saturday he wanted to return to the United States, and Guerra said he had filed a motion that would require Guatemalan authorities to deport him there and not to Belize.

The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com.

Guatemalan police arrested US anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee on Wednesday for illegally entering the country and said it would seek to expel him to neighbouring Belize.

McAfee, who had been in hiding for three weeks, crossed into Guatemala with his 20-year-old girlfriend to evade authorities in Belize who wanted to quiz him as "a person of interest" about the killing of his neighbour Gregory Faull.

"He entered the country illegally and we are going to seek his expulsion for this crime," Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said. McAfee was detained by Guatemalan police and a member of Interpol at the upscale Intercontinental hotel in Guatemala City.

There is no international arrest warrant for McAfee.

One of Silicon Valley's first entrepreneurs to build an internet fortune, the 67-year-old made millions of dollars through the anti-virus software that now carries his name.

McAfee's behavior has been increasingly erratic in recent years but there is no international arrest warrant for him. Police in Belize say he is not a prime suspect.

Government spokesman Francisco Cuevas said the entrepreneur would be expelled to Belize and he expected the process to be completed by early Thursday morning.

Fernando Lucero, spokesman for Guatemala's immigration department, said immediate deportation had been ruled out.

McAfee's lawyer Telesforo Guerra was seeking an injunction to have him released and the American said on his blog www.whoismcafee.com that he would not now be returned to the Belize border until a higher judge reviewed the case.

McAfee was taken to a residence belonging to the immigration department guarded by a small group of police.

He had been seeking political asylum in Guatemala, which has been embroiled in a long-running territorial dispute with Belize. .

Residents and neighbors on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye, where McAfee has lived in Belize for about four years, say he is eccentric, impulsive, volatile and at times unstable, citing his love of guns and young women.

McAfee has said he believes authorities in Belize will kill him if he turns himself in for questioning. Belize's prime minister has denied this and called him paranoid and "bonkers."

"It's a wild, wild country," McAfee told Reuters in an interview in his hotel room just hours before his detention.

"Everyone sees one part of Belize," he said. "They think it's a wonderful, peaceful, lovely place, blue waters, so McAfee has got to be crazy. Maybe I am crazy. If I were, I wouldn't know."

In Belize, he was often seen with armed bodyguards dressed in camouflage, pistols tucked into his belt. McAfee's slain neighbor had complained about the loud barking of dogs that guarded his exclusive beachside compound.

His run-in with authorities in Belize is a world away from a successful life in the United States, where the former Lockheed systems consultant started McAfee Associates in the late 1980s. McAfee has no relationship now with the company, which was later sold to Intel.

There was already a case against McAfee in Belize for possession of illegal firearms, and police had previously raided his property on suspicion he was running a lab to make illegal synthetic narcotics.

He says he has not taken drugs since 1983.

"[Before then] I took drugs constantly, 24 hours of the day, I took them for years and years. I was the worst drug abuser on the planet," McAfee said. "Then I finally went to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that was the end of it."

But he has no regrets about the path his life has taken, or the loss of the lion's share of his fortune over the years and says he is happier now that he cares less for material things.

"My life has not declined," he said. "My life has been on the increase ever since I decided that stuff - houses, money - doesn't mean much. I had more money than I could spend in million lifetimes. Why would I care?"

McAfee says he has been persecuted by Belize's ruling party because he wouldn't pay out some $2 million to it.

"The misunderstanding of the severity of their request for money was my big mistake," McAfee said. "Had I known that, I would maybe have said $2 million is way too much. Let's negotiate something, just don't rape me for the next seven months. Writing a cheque would have been a lot easier."

The party has denied soliciting money from him.

McAfee has been living in the tiny Central American nation for about four years, and wants to return to live there eventually. But he says he is being framed, and denies any involvement in his neighbor's killing.

"We had one disagreement about a dog. I had disagreements with all my neighbors about my dogs. I had a disagreement with myself about my dogs. They were noisy," he said.

"Why would I leave behind the body and all the evidence?" he asked. "I'm not stupid."

Anti-virus software guru John McAfee claims to have left the Caribbean country of Belize where police want to question him in connection with a neighbor's murder.

"I am not in Belize. That is all I will say," McAfee told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"Every bordering country around Belize, for political, financial, legal reasons, is pretty much like Belize and our plan is...to arrive in a safe country."

My double, carrying a North Korean passport under my name, was in fact detained in Mexico for pre-planned misbehavior.

McAfee has been in hiding for three weeks since police in Belize said they wanted to question him as "a person of interest" about the murder of fellow American Gregory Faull, with whom McAfee had quarreled.

McAfee said he believes authorities in Belize would kill him if he turned himself in for questioning. Belize's prime minister has denied the claim and called the 67-year-old paranoid and "bonkers".

"They have killed many people who've turned themselves in. The last one was a gentleman...who turned himself in. They just wanted him for questioning. They handcuffed his hands behind his back and shot him 14 times," McAfee said.

"They did say he tried to grab a gun and escape, he was surrounded by a dozen GSU (Gang Suppression Unit) people. I don't imagine he'd have had much chance, and he was a smart man, so I do not intend to turn myself in," he said.

Residents of the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye where McAfee lives and others who know him describe him as an eccentric, impulsive man who quit a career as a successful entrepreneur in the United States for a life of semi-seclusion in the former pirate haven of Belize.

McAfee has been posting updates from hiding on his blog www.whoismcafee.com, saying he is accompanied by two journalists from Vice magazine and a woman called Sam.

McAfee said on his blog he had sent a body double to the Belize-Mexico border to act as a smokescreen and help him elude authorities.

"My double, carrying a North Korean passport under my name, was in fact detained in Mexico for pre-planned misbehavior," McAfee wrote on the blog.

"But due to indifference on the part of authorities (he) was evicted from the jail and was unable to serve his intended purpose in our exit plan. He is now safely out of Mexico."

Police in Belize say McAfee is still at large and are looking for him. "We still believe that he is here, somewhere in the country," said police spokesman Raphael Martinez.

McAfee, who started McAfee Associates in 1989, has been living in the tiny Central American nation for about 4 years.

Belize's prime minister has described anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee as "bonkers" for not helping the country's police with a murder inquiry.

"I don't want to be unkind, but he seems to be extremely paranoid - I would go so far as to say bonkers," Prime Minister Dean Barrow said in Belize City. "He ought to man up and respect our laws and go in and talk to the police."

Belizean police want to question McAfee about the murder of his neighbour and fellow US citizen, Gregory Viant Faull, with whom McAfee had quarreled.

Police have been unable to track down McAfee since finding Faull dead on Sunday in his house on Ambergris Caye, an island off the coast.

In an interview on Tuesday, McAfee said he had gone into hiding because he believed Belizean authorities were trying to frame him for Faull's murder.

He ought to man up and respect our laws.

"You can say I'm paranoid about it, but they will kill me, there is no question. They've been trying to get me for months," Wired magazine's website quoted McAfee as saying. "I am not well liked by the prime minister.

According to the magazine, which has published details of several interviews with the entrepreneur, McAfee says he has been riding in boats, hunkering down on the floorboards of taxis, and sleeping in a bed that he said was infested with lice.

Since he went into hiding, McAfee has repeatedly told Wired he had nothing to do with Faull's death. Explaining his actions, McAfee said he does not want to give himself up because he is afraid the authorities will torture or kill him.

But McAfee said they would track him down in the end. On Wednesday, the magazine said that McAfee claimed to have dyed his hair, eyebrows, beard, and mustache jet black.

"I'll probably look like a murderer, unfortunately," it quoted him as saying.

Barrow called McAfee's statements "nonsense," noting he had "never met the man" and that the media attention McAfee had attracted was offering him "the best possible safeguard."

"It's not as if the police have said he is a suspect and certainly there is no question at this point of charges pending," Barrow said.

"The fact that this is smeared across international headlines means the police would have to act extremely cautiously in the full glare of the public spotlight."

McAfee, who invented the anti-virus software that bears his name, has homes and businesses in Belize, and is believed to have settled around 2010 in the tiny Central American nation bordered by Mexico and Guatemala.

There is already a case pending in Belize against McAfee for possession of illegal firearms, and police previously suspected him of running a lab to make the synthetic drug crystal meth.

On Wednesday, Belizean police said they had charged McAfee's British bodyguard William Mulligan, 29, and Mulligan's wife, Stefanie, 22, for having unlicensed weapons and ammunition.

Barrow rejected statements made by McAfee and an associate that the software pioneer was being targeted for refusing to donate to Belize's ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) to help fund its successful re-election bid in March.

"I know of no individual in the UDP who has spoken to McAfee about contributions," Barrow said.

McAfee was one of Silicon Valley's first entrepreneurs to build an internet fortune. The ex-Lockheed systems consultant started McAfee Associates in 1989. He now has no relationship with the company, which was sold to Intel.

Retail giant Dixons Retail plc has ditched six antivirus vendors, leaving just the Intel-owned McAfee and Symantec’s Norton brands on shelves at the majority of its 1300 stores. The consolidation of internet security software available through retail will drop products from Trend, GFI, Webroot, Kaspersky, Bitdefender and AVG.

In a statement from McAfee, the security vendor describes it as a “move designed to simplify the selection process for Currys and PC World customers, whilst improving their overall shopping experience by providing them with a choice of key internet security products”.

In the past, anti-virus vendors have given away huge margins to tempt Dixons Retail to stock product on its valuable shelf space. Details of a financial deal that has resulted in the reduction of choice from the shelves of the UK’s largest high street software retailer were not clarified.

Ryan Sambridge, category manager (software), Currys and PC World comments: “Currys and PC World are the UK’s leading retailers in terms of the Internet Security market and, befitting our status, we want to offer customers the best most insightful shopping experience. We have therefore included one of the most recognised Internet Security brands within the UK …McAfee offer high-end, high-quality products that complement our aims and our focus on the customer.”

However, the exclusivity for Symantec and McAfee does not extend to online sales. According to a spokesperson for GFI which sells its Vipre range through Dixons, “We have had a relationship for 18 months and it is continuing. We may have had a few in-store promotions but we focus on internet sales and our 2013 range will be carried online by both PC World and Currys from November.”

The number of malware samples detected by security researchers has risen sharply in the second quarter of this year, claims a new report from McAfee.

So much so, the security company claims the second quarter of 2012 gave rise to the biggest increase in malware for four years.

The researchers identified a 1.5 million sequential rise in malware samples from the previous quarter, which is consistent with the growth in mobile use. Almost all of the new malware was targeted at Android users.

The mobile OS was the focus of SMS-based malware, mobile botnets, spyware, and destructive Trojans, claims McAfee.

"Over the last quarter we have seen prime examples of malware that impacted consumers, businesses, and critical infrastructure facilities," said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs.

"Attacks we've traditionally seen on PCs are now making their way to other devices."

Other new threats include mobile "drive-by downloads", "Twitter-controlled botnets", and "ransomware."

The latter has steadily increased each quarter and has become a popular avenue for cyber criminals, the report claims.

Damage can range from loss of photos and personal files to data encryption and demands for money from large enterprises.

Ransomware is especially challenging as it can hold computers and data hostage, instantly damaging machines.

Botnets are also on the increase this quarter, with infections reaching a 12-month high.

The US is at the epicentre of botnet control servers, with new methods for control also uncovered. These include the use of Twitter for mobile botnet command and control. As such, the attacker can tweet commands with relative anonymity and all infected devices will follow them.

Around 1.2 million new thumb drive samples were spotted alongside almost 1.6 million samples of new password-stealing malware, which collects account names and passwords.

This quarter McAfee Labs recorded an average of 2.7 million new bad URLs per month. In June, these new URLs were related to about 300,000 bad domains, which is equivalent to 10,000 new malicious domains every day.

Of the new bad-reputation URLs, 94.2 per cent host malware, exploits or code that have been specifically designed to hijack computers.

Weaver said that the report "highlights the need for protection on all devices that may be used to access the Internet."

A recent update to McAfee's security products left users unable to access the internet and exposed to malware.

The update affected all Windows McAfee suites and VirusScan products, including the latest version of VirusScan Enterprise and McAfee SecurityCenter, after anti-virus signature updates (DAT 6807, 6808) stopped working for some users.

McAfee was later forced to release a "critical" enterprise 100Mb Super DAT (Hotfix 793640) and a consumer fix (DAT 6809) for the defective updates.

A statement on the security vendor's website confirmed the issue and warned that users' machines could be at risk.

"McAfee has identified an issue with DAT 6807 and 6808. Specifically, these DATs can affect McShield.exe and may cause issues with the On-Access Scanner," it stated.

"If you have deployed either the 6807 or 6808 DAT, McAfee strongly recommends that you perform the remediation steps in the solution."

We are doing everything we can to minimise the impact on customers.

The botched update left many BT broadband users unable to access the internet.

In a statement on the BT website, the telco said it was "aware that some of our customers have lost access to the internet after recent updates by McAfee," and advised them to reinstall their security software.

Gavin Struthers, senior vice president of worldwide channel operations at McAfee apologised for the update blip in a blog post.

"We realise this DAT issue has inconvenienced both our customers and partners, and for that we apologise," he wrote.

"But, I also wanted to assure you, by outlining it here in this blog, we are doing everything we can to minimise impact with our partners and for our customers."

Further information on how to fix the problem can be found on the company's website here.

A team of white hat hackers from Intel's security division, McAfee, are working on ways to prevent cyber attacks on in-car computer systems.

Motor manufacturers are putting increasing amounts of technology into cars, making them increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks.

The McAfee researchers are based in a garage on the West Coast of the US and are tasked with finding ways to protect tech-laden cars.

I don't think people need to panic, but the future is really scary.

McAfee executive Bruce Snell, who supervises research into car security, said manufacturers are concerned about attacks on cars using flaws in the vehicle computer systems.

"If your laptop crashes you'll have a bad day, but if your car crashes that could be life threatening," he told Reuters.

The researchers are already mindful of attempts to abuse weaknesses in vehicle security systems and have started to take vehicles apart to find flaws that could be used to inject viruses or other malware.

McAfee has also hired hacker-turned-security-analyst, Barnaby Jack, to uncover vehicle weaknesses.

In a research paper, Experimental Security Analysis of a Modern Automobile, it has been revealed that viruses are capable of releasing or engaging brakes, even at high speeds.

Such tactics could possibly kill people in the car as well as others in an accident. Scientists could also use malware to lock and unlock doors, start and disable engines and turn the headlights off and on.

There have been no reported incidents of hacked cars causing death or injury so far, but Snell said car manufacturers are very worried about the possibility.

"I don't think people need to panic now. But the future is really scary," he said.

McAfee has launched a Managed Service Provider (MSP) programme for resellers building a managed security services business.

The firm says the “pay-as-you-go” monthly subscription security services programme addresses both on-premise and cloud based customer requirements, and is especially targeted at the SMB.

“We are seeing tremendous growth in the managed service market fuelled by customer demand for reduced IT complexity and lower cost,” says Gavin Struthers, senior vice president of worldwide channels (pictured), who adds the programme leverages the firm’s decade-long managed services experience.

McAfee quotes research from AMI Partners, which states the worldwide market for security solutions in the SMB segment is around $5.1bn, growing at a CAGR of about 9 percent annually.

The new programme offers protection for endpoints, servers/networks, virtual environments and mobile devices, as well as the vendor’s SaaS portfolio, which can all be managed centrally through either McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator or SaaS management console.

Security vendor McAfee claims a malware-mediated banking fraud ring has attempted to steal up to 2 billion from accounts in Europe, the United States and Columbia.

In a report, co-authored by McAfee and bank security specialist Guardian Analytics, it is claimed the fraudsters used Zeus and SpyEye malware to siphon off large sums of money from high balance accounts across the globe.

The attack moves quickly and seems worthy of the term 'organised crime'.

However, unlike other Zeus and SpyEye mediated banking scams, this one is far more sophisticated and scalable, the report claims.

"Unlike standard attacks that typically feature live and manual interventions, we have discovered at least a dozen groups now using server-side components and heavy automation," the report states.

"With no human participation required, each attack moves quickly and scales neatly...[and] combines an insider level of understanding of banking transactions systems that appears to be worthy of the term organised crime'."

The report, entitled Dissecting Operation High Roller, includes case studies from different countries where the banking scam has been detected.

In Germany, the hackers targeted 176 accounts whose collective balances exceeded 8 million.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, more than 5,000 business accounts were compromised, with the fraudsters attempting to make off with 35.6 million.

During an attack in Colombia, more than a dozen businesses were attacked and each of them had an account balance of between US$500,000 and US$2 million.

David Marcus, director of security research at McAfee, said the report's findings show that cloud-based services are becoming increasingly popular attack targets for fraudsters.

"Building on established Zeus and SpyEye tactics, this [banking fraud] ring adds many breakthroughs, [including] bypasses for physical chip and pin' authentication, automated mule account databases, server-based fraudulent transactions, and attempted transfers to mule business accounts as high as 100,000," said Marcus in a blog post.

Hackers could endanger lives by gaining control of medical implants and devices, an IT security expert has warned.

Barnaby Jack, a researcher at security vendor McAfee, claimed hackers could gain control of insulin pumps, for example, using radio links.

They could then program the device to pump a fatal dose of insulin into the patient's body, potentially killing them.

Jack claimed it took a "couple of weeks" to figure out how to hijack a well-known brand of the insulin pump using a radio antenna and laptop.

Although no attack of this type has been carried out, Jack said more needs to be done to safeguard medical devices against hackers.

"We can influence any pump within a 300ft range," he told the BBC. "We can make that pump dispense its entire 300 unit reservoir of insulin and we can do that without its ID number."

Jack said medical devices run on low power and have a few lines of code running on them, leaving little room for any kind of meaningful encryption.

He also confirmed that he has no plans to release his work publicly, but hopes his findings to date will prompt medical device makers to take action.

Security on a chip, the technology being delivered by Intel and McAfee, has not produced the goods so far, according to a Symantec executive.

There are questions over whether Intel's $8 billion bet was worth it, considering the technology had not proven itself to be better than protections already on the market, Symantec's group president for enterprise products and services Francis deSouza told IT Pro.

McAfee released the industry's first sub-OS security product in October 2011, built on the DeepSAFE concept, promising Deep Defender would bring the finest rootkit eradicating technology to businesses.

We've tried a bunch of things over the years but the thing is you are bringing together industries at opposite ends of the spectrum.

It came after Intel shook the security world in August 2010 by announcing its intention to acquire McAfee.

But Symantec has not yet seen how security on a chip is better than other services. deSouza pointed to a demo of how DeepSAFE technology caught a rootkit.

"Except then we also showed that you didn't really need DeepSAFE to catch it," he added.

deSouza said the two industries of chip making and security were very different, indicating working together has not been as productive as some had hoped.

"Since 1998 we've been working with Intel on how we can best move security forward. We've tried a bunch of things over the years but the thing is you are bringing together industries at opposite ends of the spectrum," he added.

"Intel's business is all about making things run as fast as possible but to do that you freeze it in the silicon and then it stays there for a decade, nothing changes.

"In security we do updates every few minutes and you could not imagine two more different worlds. It's been 14 years of our guys and their guys brainstorming."

Is security on a chip technology a dead duck then? "So far, yeah. We're still waiting to [see something]," deSouza added.

McAfee reaction

Raj Samani, CTO at McAfee, told IT Pro such early judgments should not carry weight.

"How can you make a judgment on something that is only a matter of months old?" Samani said.

"This is something that will fundamentally change the way we think about security."

As for whether there was great customer interest, Samani could not provide any data but said the excitement after the DeepSAFE announcement was proof this was a technology many cared about.

There has been little to no talk about the security on a chip concept at RSA 2012 this week, however, with most focus going on cloud and identity management.

UPDATED McAfee, after reading this article, wished to offer further comment on Symantec's thoughts about security on a chip.

Rees Johnson, vice president of McAfee Labs, said the October announcement was a beta version and the Deep Defender product will be widely available "very soon." "Those looking at the early version may not have had a full understanding of its complete capabilities, therefore any opinions are premature," Johnson said. "While other vendors claim to catch rootkits they do so after the fact. McAfee Deep Defender catches rootkits zero day. "When McAfee announced the product plans last October customers (including BT, London Security and Digital Era) were extremely excited at the potential capabilities.

"Now that we are closer to release we have spoken with numerous customers during the RSA Conference who all see the value in this early rootkit detection solution and bringing hardware and security closer together." Johnson added that Intel and McAfee are working on other sub-OS level protections.

"We have been shipping McAfee ePO Deep Command for almost six months this solution goes beyond the OS for complete endpoint management," he sadi.

"McAfee also has plans to release more solutions in the area of hardware assisted security as we see this as the new direction for the security industry."

Three regional policing e-crime hubs are to be established in the UK, as the Government looks to boost the nation's protection against threats.

Yorkshire and the Humber, the Northwest and the East Midlands will each get a hub, where specialist cyber police will coordinate with the Metropolitan Police Centre e-crime Unit (PCeU) on catching cyber criminals and shutting down their operations.

The announcement was made during the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) e-crime conference in Sheffield yesterday.

"The Government has acknowledged a need to collaborate and provide a structured response to the cyber security of the UK and these three additional policing units are going to play a critical role in our ability to combat the threat," said ACPO lead on e-crime deputy assistant commissioner Janet Williams.

"It is anticipated the hubs will make a significant contribution to the national harm reduction target of 504m. In the first six months of the new funding period alone we have already been able to show a reduction of 140m with our existing capability."

The hubs will only become active once police are trained up, Williams added.

Late last year, the Government announced a centralised hub that would allow private and public organisations to share data on threats.

Positive reaction

The Government has faced criticism for its funding the fight against cyber crime, with industry players saying not enough money was being pumped into police. The Government allocated 650 million for cyber security over the Coalition's five-year tenure.

According to one industry player however, the UK has been noticeably proactive in helping police fight cyber crime.

"Yorkshire Police have actually been one of the most cyber ready forces for a number of years," Raj Samani, UK CTO of McAfee, told IT Pro.

Last year, the Cabinet Office's National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP) pledged 30 million to "improve national capability to investigate and combat cyber crime." Whilst this might not seem much, Samani suggested taken in context, it was a sizeable amount.

"This is 30 million above what they've already invested," Samani added. "I was in a meeting with the Cabinet Office and I was taught a lesson. I questioned the 650 million and was told that was above and beyond all the existing investments.

"That's what we need to remember... actually I'd say it's a really welcoming figure because it demonstrates that this has a higher priority. They've identified a priority and they think it requires additional investment."

McAfee has confirmed SaaS for Total Protection contains two vulnerabilities which could let hackers use machines as open relays for spam.

The security company owned by Intel admitted the flaws in its hosted anti-malware solution in a blog post, trying to reassure customers the holes were limited to this single product.

The first flaw could allow attackers to "misuse" ActiveX controls in order to execute malicious code. However, the second would enable cyber criminals to use an infected machine as an open relay to distribute spam to other users.

Whilst the first was similar to an issue patched in August last year, meaning the risk for customer data was low, the second hole has been abused by spammers.

"The second issue has been used to allow spammers to bounce off of affected machines, resulting in an increase of outgoing email from them," wrote David Marcus, director of security research for McAfee.

"Although this issue can allow the relaying of spam, it does not give access to the data on an affected machine."

McAfee hopes to release a patch to fix both issues this week as soon as it has finished the necessary testing.

"Because this is a managed product, all affected customers will automatically receive the patch when it is released," added Marcus.

The company claimed there was no evidence of loss or compromise of any customer data due to the two flaws.