McAfee

What if you went to a Ford dealer and walked over to the employee parking lot and noticed that not one employee drives a Ford. You would begin to lose confidence in their brand. Guess what? There’s an anti-virus and internet security company who doesn’t believe in their own brand, either.

McAfee, one of the leading providers for anti-virus and security software is not all they’re cracked up to be. In fact, McAfee was recently punked when they were egged on to run a test on their own network for security vulnerabilities. McAfee’s network failed the XSS (CROSS-Site Scripting) vulnerability test, which causes a user’s Web browser to execute a malicious script, according to ZDNet.

McAfee is not using McAfee security tools on their own properties. Why not? They must have no confidence in their own product. I guess McAfee doesn’t think XSS is a big issue. They’re wrong; it’s a major issue and you would think that McAfee would be writing the play book on this issue.

Recommendation:

If you’re looking for an excellent anti-virus and anti-spam product, check out ETrust 8 made by Computer Associates. To read more about ETrust go here.

Editor Update (5/14/08 9:08PM, by RT): It would seem the earlier statement that McAfee does not use their own products is inaccurate. According to ZDNet’s article here, McAfee ignores sites that are vulnerable to XSS exploits and continues to certify them “HackerSafe,” including some of their own. It’s not that they aren’t using their own software on their properties, it’s that they are using it, and that’s what makes them vulnerable. Sorry for the confusion. We still hold that McAfee’s products suck.

[Frank J likes eTrust. Personally, I’ve heard good things about Avast!, AVG, ClamWin, or Nod32. Of course, some users would even say they don’t run anti-virus at all, opting for a tightly-secured system and good browsing habits. Let us know in the comments what anti-virus you prefer, and why! -The Raging Tech]