Farewell McAfee, Hello Intel Security

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced yesterday that the McAfee brand will be phased out. The products and services will live on, but as new products, or versions of existing products are introduced it will be under a new brand—Intel Security.

The news is significant because it represents the end of an era. The McAfee brand is virtually synonymous with antivirus and PC security in general. The last decade of PC security has been defined by leading brands such as Symantec and McAfee, and now the McAfee brand will fade away.

I’m going to miss the McAfee brand. I began my security career supporting tens of thousands of endpoints protected by McAfee security software, and I have had a very good relationship with McAfee as an analyst and tech journalist. None of that will really change, but the McAfee brand will soon be a relic.

The transition is primarily a simple name change. Intel is just dropping the McAfee brand to go with a new name that directly connects the products and services to the Intel name. Beneath the surface, though, the shift is also an apt analogy for the direction security is heading, and why Intel acquired McAfee in the first place.

When people think of security, they think of names like McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, Webroot, and others. Those names, however, are most closely associated with PC endpoint security tools—specifically Windows PC security. They think of products that are virtually required, but tacked on after the fact to guard Windows-based PCs against viruses, worms, botnets, and other malware threats. Those are all still valid concerns, but the world has changed…

Read the full story at CSOOnline.com: Farewell McAfee, Hello Intel Security.