McAfee, Inc. announced McAfee VirusScan for Mac v8.6, one of the first anti-virus solutions for Apple's newest operating system, Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard. With the release of McAfee VirusScan for Mac v8.6, McAfee provides proactive security for customers needing protection against threats to their personal and private data wherever it resides. As part of the McAfee Security Risk Management strategy, McAfee offers a broad portfolio of security solutions that protect customers' computing environment at multiple points and from multiple threats. McAfee VirusScan for Mac checks for more than 330,000 pieces of malware on all platforms.

    McAfee VirusScan for Mac protects Macintosh end points against malware and other unwanted programs that can target systems. This product can be centrally managed through McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator for easy company-wide deployment.

    "McAfee is our chosen provider for enterprise anti-virus software. We use it to cover all of our PCs and servers. However, not all of our nodes are Windows based; many of them are Macs," said Mike Livingston, director of infrastructure and support center of the University of Houston-Clear Lake. "Without McAfee VirusScan for Mac, our entire network would be vulnerable. We appreciate that McAfee has the vision to offer this type of protection."

    As the first security vendor to release support for Leopard, McAfee ensures that early adopters of Mac technology will be protected. The world's premier virus detection and cleaning solution for the Macintosh OS X platform, McAfee VirusScan for Mac delivers comprehensive, non-intrusive antivirus protection against viruses, Worms, Trojans and other malicious code.

    "No operating system can be completely immune from attack and our Apple customers deserve up-to-the minute protection," said Sridhar Jayanthi, vice president of product development at McAfee. "With every new operating system, bad guys will try to find new flaws. VirusScan for Mac will help ensure that customers stay protected regardless of which operating system they are using. McAfee is committed to offering our customers total protection."  

McAfee VirusScan for Mac version 8.6 offers the following features and benefits:
    - Support for incremental signature file updates - This feature reduces the signature size from megabytes to kilobytes making daily updates quick and easy.
    - Drastic improvements in performance with file caching - Features on-access and on-demand file caching, which provides significant improvements to scanning. For example, caching files that have already been scanned will decrease the scanning time from minutes to seconds.
    - Centralized management though ePolicy Orchestrator 4.0 - McAfee VirusScan offers improved manageability through ePO 4.0, McAfee's new Web-based management console that enables customer to get a real-time view of their Mac security.