New Leader Is Appointed at McAfee
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McAfee, the large maker of security software, appointed David DeWalt of the EMC Corporation as its chief executive.
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(InfoWorld) - McAfee's board of directors on Monday named former EMC executive Dave DeWalt as the security software company's CEO and president. DeWalt, 42, takes the helm of a company tainted byÂ allegations surrounding backdating of stock options by former executives. DeWalt, a 20-year veteran of the technology industry, most recently was executive vice president and president of customer operations for EMC. David Fuller, McAfee's interim president and CEO, will leave that job April 1, the day before DeWalt takes over. Fuller will stay as an advisor to help with the transition and will remain on the board. DeWalt is also expected to be appointed to the board. Fuller stepped in as interim chief in October 2006 following the resignation of George Samenuk as chairman and CEO and Kevin Weiss as president. They left following allegations that they were involved in improperly backdating stock options to McAfee executives. Last week, former McAfee legal counsel Kent Roberts was arraigned on federal fraud charges in relation to his role in the backdating scandal. He pleaded not guilty before a federal judge in San Francisco. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Top executives from the security firm McAfeeÂ went on the offensive Monday against Microsoft, saying Vista will be even less secure for customers than previous versions of Windows. The day after McAfee took out a full-page advertisement in the Financial Times to publicly air its grievances over the security of Vista, McAfee Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) George Samenuk, Vice President and Chief Scientist George Heron and Chief Security Architect John Viega delivered the same message in person in New York. "We are disturbed by the fact that with Vista, end customers will be less secure," Samenuk said. "Customers trust us ... To erode that trust would hurt all Internet users, all PC users. I don't think Microsoft wants that, nor does McAfee want that." Two security elements in Vista fare chief among McAfee's concerns, executives said. In Vista, Microsoft is locking down the kernel of the OS through a feature called PatchGuard on 64-bit versions. Microsoft's argument is that this will keep miscreants out of the OS and prevent the incidence of attacks, and it is something for which customers have been asking. "Fooling around with the kernel while it's running is like changing the sparkplugs on your car when the engine is running," said Stephen Toulouse, a senior product manager at Microsoft. "It's never been a good thing for users." But McAfee said since PatchGuard also prevents third-party security companies from getting inside the OS, they can't activate crucial security measures in their software to protect the OS from intruders. PatchGuard is not new in Vista, said Bruce McCorkendale, a distinguished engineer with McAfee competitor Symantec Corp., which shares McAfee's consternation over the feature. He said Symantec has been petitioning for Microsoft to change the feature since the company introduced it in its 64-bit version of Windows XP, but the company will not budge. "If you ask any security vendor that offers advanced protection, you'd get the same answer [about PatchGuard]," McCorkendale said. "It's just inhibiting the way security vendors do their jobs." However, according to Jupiter Research, only 5 percent of companies with 100 employees or more are running Windows XP in its 64-bit version, and that adoption is not supposed to ramp up significantly anytime soon, said analyst Joe Wilcox. "If this new [feature] affects 64-bit only and nobody is using 64-bit, what's the problem?" he said. The other big concern with Vista for McAfee lies in a new security interface called Windows Security Center (WSC). Microsoft will not allow this interface to be turned off, so McAfee and other third-party users can't install their own security-management consoles on Vista machines, executives said. McAfee's argument is that third-party security products can better detect potential or existing security problems that Vista inherently can, and unless those can be surfaced through the interface, users will not be alerted to them, Viega said. Some believe security vendors are crying foul over Vista because Microsoft's ability to control security features of the OS is a threat to their livelihood. Companies such as McAfee and Symantec have all but built their businesses on the fact that Windows is inherently insecure, and add-on security software is needed to protect it from intrusion. "Historically, when Microsoft has gotten into a market, the number of competitors goes down," Wilcox said. However, he said there is a legitimate concern, supported by precedence, that not only will vendors be pushed out of the market, but there will be less innovation in Windows security products and more problems will arise. Wilcox cited Internet Explorer as an example of an area in which Microsoft beat competitors, but then did not innovate on the product until it faced competition once again. "Microsoft won the browser war and for years abandoned the territory," Wilcox said. If Microsoft successfully reduces the number of competitors by building security into Windows, it might also become lackadaisical about security improvements, thus opening the OS up to more attacks.
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InfoWorld - McAfee&#39;s board of directors on Monday named former EMC executive Dave DeWalt as the security software company&#39;s CEO and president.
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The Department of Homeland Security has named an acting US cybersecurity chief as Congress weighed whether to give the position greater clout to fight hackers, viruses and other online threats.
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Michael Chertoff will replace Tom Ridge, the department's first leader, who recently resigned citing personal reasons.
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InfoWorld - In early December, InfoWorld Senior Writer Matt Hines had the opportunity to sit down with John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec, and David DeWalt, chief executive of McAfee, to interview the leaders about the strategic direction of their companies and where they see different aspects of the IT security market heading in 2008 and beyond.
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McAfee Inc. says that a new managed e-mail service will help small businesses handle the deluge of spam and viruses pounding their networks.
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SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 5  /PRNewswire/ -- Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing, today announced the appointment of Tarkan Maner to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, as the company aligns itself for its next stage of market growth.
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McAfee's board of directors on Monday named former EMC executive Dave DeWalt as the security software company's CEO and president.
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The Liberty Alliance has announced a new president to head the organization designed to create open standards and business guidelines for federated identity management.
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MicroStrategy, which makes business intelligence software, said Tuesday that Eric Brown resigned as president and chief financial officer in order to become CFO at McAfee Inc. which makes system security products.
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Bernard Kerik, the no-nonsense former New York police commissioner, was named by President George Bush yesterday to take over at the Department of Homeland Security, charged with keeping America safe from terrorism.
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The US has a new head of cyber security, amid concerns about the Bush administration&#39;s commitment to protecting computer networks from attack.
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Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik is chosen as the new US homeland security chief.
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McAfee on Monday unveiled a new security service designed to let small companies outsource their e-mail security to the antivirus software maker.
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Roger King, formerly president at Software Spectrum, will lead worldwide sales at security software maker McAfee.