Comments on: Intel to Buy McAfee for $7.68B to Secure Its Growth in the Cloud

By: Intel Bets on Mobile Social Gaming with Aurora Feint Investment: Tech News «

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:05:04 +0000

[...] catch up with it’s powere-efficient Atom processors and recent acquisitions of Infineon and McAfee. Intel still has a ways to go to catch up but it shows with this investment that it’s getting [...]

By: HP Buys ArcSight to Bring Security to the Cloud «

HP Buys ArcSight to Bring Security to the Cloud « — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:46:32 +0000

[...] role in corporate computing. Other hardware makers are also investing in security: Intel Corp. recently agreed to pay $7.68 billion for security software maker [...]

By: For Intel, Big Week of Little Chips «

For Intel, Big Week of Little Chips « — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 12:33:16 +0000

[...] Expect details on Intel’s Infineon Wireless Business acquisition and more on how Intel plans to incorporate McAfee’s technology in its core [...]

By: Mobile Security Needs Rise With Smartphone Sales «

Mobile Security Needs Rise With Smartphone Sales « — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:30:27 +0000

[...] to Lookout called WaveSecure, which was recently purchased by McAfee and is now owned by Intel as Intel agreed to buy McAfee last month for $7.68 billion. How are you protecting your mobile data? Or do you think this isn’t a problem that needs a [...]

By: Intel: Desperately Seeking Software (Margins)

Intel: Desperately Seeking Software (Margins) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:19:53 +0000

[...] is the 800-pound gorilla in mobile semiconductors. And, yes, it’s potentially part of a the chip-to-cloud security story. However, the larger purpose is to give Intel software expertise and revenue [...]

By: Sylvain, www.qosmos.com

Sylvain, www.qosmos.com — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:33:54 +0000

Acquisition is one way to go, but not an option for most vendors. And, “hardwiring” will lack the flexibility to react to change easily. That’s where specialized software components come in, able to adapt quickly not only to change, but to the specific requirements of each vendor’s solution and their customers’ needs.

The McAfee acquisition really underscores the need for visibility at all levels (hardware and applications) for better security (and other purposes as well). And the network really is the converging point for all systems.

Technology providers are looking at the emerging category of “network intelligence” technology as a more widespread (and more practical) alternative to solve the security (and visibility) issue.

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:15:19 +0000

Make that +2. Same head scratcher of a reaction.

By: rohitsift

rohitsift — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 06:19:31 +0000

+1. wtf ? mcafee ?

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 03:54:33 +0000

This one has my scratching my head. Security these days comes in two basic forms: keeping people from breaking-in in the first place and, if they’re successful, from interpreting what they see. The theory and techniques are well known. While I applaud Intel’s efforts to provide security protection in hardware, the expensive acquisition of McAfee doesn’t bring anything unique in terms of security technology and certainly doesn’t bring much hardware experience to the table.

Intel has been on a buying spree of late, I guess to stock up before any economic recovery jacks the prices, hoping the long term proves them wise.

By: Hamranhansenhansen

Hamranhansenhansen — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:45:12 +0000

Except the hottest thing in ARM is iPhone and iPad and McAfee is irrelevant there because iOS does not have any viruses or malware. Apple users don’t know what a McAfee is. And when there was an exploit recently for iOS v4.0.1, Apple just shipped iOS v4.0.2 and iTunes put it on all the phones within days.

I’m also not aware of any BlackBerry malware, or Nokia malware. Since Apple, RIM, and Nokia account for 90% of the profits in the mobile phone industry, they are the ones who are likely to still be around 2 years from now.

Virus scanning is not compatible with mobile for the same reason background apps are suspect: battery life. You may be able to give over 10% of your limited CPU to a scanner, but you can’t give up 50% of your battery as it works away constantly.

And as far as Intel chips, the Mac has been on Intel for 4-5 years and no viruses and only 3 minor Trojans that were solved by enabling the Mac OS to recognize them and not run them. Since the Mac OS updates itself regularly, replacing its own kernel every couple of months, those fixes spread to the community faster than anti-virus updates. There has never been a way for a commercial malware market to take hold because consistent updates are like when NYC started painting over graffiti on all subway cars before letting them roll. There was no longer any point in painting a car all night because it was never going to leave the yard without being painted over. On the Mac, there’s no point in making malware for v10.6.4 because it will be replaced with v10.6.5 in just weeks from now across almost all client systems. You don’t have a pool of 10 year old software to exploit like on Windows.

So Intel could have bought NVIDIA for over $1 billion less and then they would have the new Tegra dual-ARM with GPU, and they would have an integrated PC GPU that doesn’t suck.

Instead they got a company that puts band-aids on the weeping sores that Microsoft products ship with. And this is good for mobile? Microsoft doesn’t even have a mobile product right now. Yeah, Google’s mobile product has malware but there is no money in Android hardware or software at all, that is why there is malware, it’s the only software that can make money on Android.

So count me as very, very skeptical of this.

McAfee!?